Mary Engel has been the director of the Ruth Orkin Photo Archive since its inception in 1985. Engel works with photography galleries, museums and auction houses in the United States and abroad. She has published four catalogs of photography. Mary recently wrote the introduction and served as co-editor on Ruth Orkin: A Photo Spirit, published in 2021. 

Engel is also the founder and president of the American Photography Archives Group, APAG. It includes close to 300 members who manage privately held photography archives. They have Zoom meetings bi-weekly with presentations by industry experts and photographers. 

Engel is also a filmmaker and her first film “Ruth Orkin: Frames of Life” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1996, and went on to screen at many other festivals. The film was selected by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as one of the “Outstanding Documentaries of 1996.” Her film “Morris Engel: The Independent” premiered on Turner Classic Movies, TCM in 2009. Engel is also a contributing producer of “Ordinary Miracles: The Photo League’s New York” released in 2011.