Marie Constantin: Photos of Mother Teresa

“Keep the joy of loving in your heart.” – Mother Teresa

View rare private behind-the-scenes moments of the late Mother Teresa, who devoted her life to caring for the sick and poor; established a hospice and centers for the blind, aged, and disabled; and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her humanitarian work. When Mother Teresa was alive, Baton Rouge photographer Marie Constantin was one of two professional photographers in the U.S. who were invited by the Missionaries of Charity to photograph Mother Teresa while traveling through North Carolina, New Jersey, Maryland, Washington DC, New York and Calcutta.

Marie Bissell Constantin—an American still photographer based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana—is internationally known for her photographic works of the late Mother Teresa of Calcutta. One of her photos was chosen to hang in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican to be the official photo for Mother Teresa’s Beatification Ceremony that was held during the Pope’s 25th anniversary celebrations in Rome. During the celebrations, Constantin was featured on CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood. The 6-minute piece showed more than 25 black-and-white photos Constantin made over a 13-year period. When the late Mother Teresa was alive, Constantin was one of two professional photographers in the United States (Michael Collopy) who were invited by the Missionaries of Charity, to travel up and down the East Coast to photograph Mother Teresa in North Carolina, New Jersey, Maryland, Washington DC, New York and Calcutta. Constantin was invited to capture Mother Teresa in rare private moments behind the scenes.

While Constantin’s commercial work takes her to local Fortune 500 Companies, industrial plants, hospitals and a host of hometown businesses, it was her personal work that took her to some of the world’s worst slums—Calcutta, Haiti, Nicaragua and Tijuana—where she photographed and worked with humanitarians working with the poor.

A YWCA Woman of Achievement, and winner of numerous awards in photography and writing, Constantin is a eight-time winner (2003–2008, 2010, 2011) of Gold Addy Awards in the Annual Reports category. In 2007 she won a Gold Addy for Best in Show and that work appeared in Communication Arts Magazine. Constantin is a 1986 graduate of LSU’s Manship School of Journalism.

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