DEGREES OF COMPARISON OF ADJECTIVES In English, as in Russian, ...
Sally Mann was born in the hospital that was once the home of Thomas (Stonewall) Jackson, lived in Virginia and has always proclaimed her "Southernness", both in photographs and in the exciting and sensational book of memoirs "Don't Move" (" Hold Still"). She says her photograph is tied to the South by her fascination with the area, her family, her past, her love for the light there, and her willingness to experiment with a level of romance greater than most 20th-century artists can tolerate. Add to this romanticism the influence of the writers of the South, and you get a touch of gothic. There is also a touch of expressionism in the mix, enhanced by the desire to express strong feelings and the ability to do so.
All of this "Southernness", with its obsession and tenacity, is now shown in an ingeniously curated and superbly designed retrospective exhibition in Washington, D.C., spanning the bulk of the photographer's 40-year career: Sally Mann: A Thousand Crossings (Sally Mann: A Thousand Crossings) , at the National Gallery of Art. 108 photographs, 47 of which are being shown for the first time, and a sumptuous catalogue, provide a breathtaking tour of the photographer's accomplishments. It is also a record of an exploratory journey - into the past, into the history of the country and photography, captured by the author's bright gaze.
The exhibition focuses on Sally Mann's preoccupation with family relationships as her children grow up, and she keenly captures all the conflicts and complex relationship knots of the growing up process. After that, she began to discover both her native Virginia and the nearby Southern states.
The works become visually deeper - and in some cases harrowing and dramatic - when the author takes a digression into the history of the South. Later, she returns again to children increasingly affected by time, to her own close contact with death in a riding accident, and to the unfortunate development of late muscular dystrophy in her husband. Photographs of children reflect the idea of smooth progress, movement through life to the greatest extent. As if in contrast to these works, Sally Mann turns to racial history, to memories of the past, the threads from which stretch into the consciousness of people of our time.
Her work has never been superficial, but over time the artist goes deeper and meets the dark side of life with a more daring challenge. The exhibition convincingly demonstrates her exceptional sensitivity, fearless exploration of different techniques, her growing skill as a printer and her willingness to provide answers to difficult questions of life and death. (Her past tendency to "go too far" in Romantic Expressionism also rears its head.) Not all works reach the level of her masterpieces, but these masterpieces are filled with passion.
The exhibition is organized by Sarah Greenough, Senior Curator and Grave of the Photography Department at the National Gallery of Art, and Sarah Kennel, Curator of Photography at the Peabody Museum in Essex.
Sally Mann broke into the national consciousness with her fourth book, Immediate Family, in 1992 (the book was reprinted in 2015) - "for all the wrong reasons." When the whole country was in a state of hysteria about child abuse and nudity (anything) (remember the Mapplethorpe Trial?), her pictures of three kids on their remote farm, some of them naked, caused a "child porn/bad mother" uproar. . The fact that these pictures tell only about the games of children with each other and with their parents in the hot summer by the river did not make anyone think. But many photographers understood these works, appreciated them and fell under the influence of the author.
There are few nudity photos in the exhibition, but they tackle difficult themes such as the transience of innocence, children's tossing between attachment and independence, and the constant fears of danger that haunt parents. The photo of "Jessie Bites" shows the anger of a child - and at the same time the need for physical support, expressed in this case by the unenthusiastic hand of an adult with bite marks. "Emmett Floating at Camp", an unpublished photograph from 1991 showing one of the children floating in gray nowhere. This image took on a timeless and incredibly sad quality as Emmett gradually became schizophrenic and committed suicide in 2016.
As the children grew older, Sally Mann began to explore the South as such, inspired by the idea that the "wasteful beauty" of the landscape turns the scene into a strange mixture of vulnerability, rebellion and mercy, which reflects the character of the region as a whole. In the section called “The Land”, she uses vintage optics to achieve artifacts that earlier photographers would have been horrified to see as imperfections.
The earth lies, flooded with dazzling southern light and filled with moisture, the sky above it looks like a vault due to vignetting along the edges - or is it Space itself? She sees the light as a great lover, caressing the earth, or a great rapist, tearing apart the integrity of the earth, and often a great designer, changing our ideas about what should stop attention in the first place.
And she considers this luxury and beauty deceptive, because she feels death under her feet, the death of the slaves who cultivated and equipped this land. "I had a kind of fascination with death, it seems to be hereditary," she says, and adds, "my father had the same feeling, I'm sure." Their family home was full of images dedicated to this theme from a wide variety of cultures, and thus the theme has permeated the consciousness of the photographer since childhood. As she wrote, "Death is the sculptor of the enchanting landscape, the wet creator of life, who one day devours us all."
This was later supplemented by her realization that the entire South is afflicted with racism, even those people who consider themselves to be against it. The realization of this struck her unexpectedly when she went north to boarding school. As a child, she was severely traumatized by the brutal murder of Emmett Till, a black Chicago teenager who was kidnapped, mutilated, and murdered in Mississippi in 1955; later she would name her first child after him.
But she didn't wonder why Virginia Carter, her favorite black nanny, who was called GJ, had to eat in the car when she traveled with her family. Once, realizing everything completely, she went to look for signs associated with the death of Till. Neither her photograph of the bridge from which he was allegedly thrown into the water, nor the piece of shore to which the body was then washed up, look like witnesses to the murder, despite the thin white drip near the bridge, similar to a tear mark. Photographs are mute, and only speak if they are helped to speak. Once titled, these two images remind us of a disgusting history and indifference, and revolt our minds.
She dared to move on, to the battlefields of the Civil War. The gallery of works has replenished with large, dark paintings: angry, depressing, demanding. Using 19th-century-style collodion negatives and antique lenses, she infused randomness into her prints, heightening the sense of historicity and mimicking the random ravages of war. Several powerful images of Antietam, the site of the bloodiest day in American history, appear as dark and gloomy as death itself. On one of them, half a black sun looms on the horizon, while the second sun, fuller but less clear, is gaining ominous power in the sky. On another, a curtain of heavy black cloud descends, illuminated by what could be lightning. In these images, blind killing power is mixed with mourning.
The group of photographs of the Great Dismal Swamp, where runaway slaves fled from south to north hid and where many of them died, is also powerful and poignant. They were created using the archaic tintype technique, and are relatively small. Foliage, atmosphere and reflections are dense and impenetrable, like emblems of evil. I'd like to see them in a bigger size, those ruthless views with no way out, like landscapes of hell disguised as art.
Sally Mann also made a series of serious, melancholy portraits of black people, taken, she writes in Don't Move, in an attempt to redeem her early careless ignorance about racism and try to understand these people, whom she had not really seen until then.
She asked more than once if the earth had a memory. Okay, let's not. But we create it by building monuments, cemeteries, roadside steles, memorials on the fields of past battles. But the story moves on; grass grows on the past.
The last hall of the exhibition is filled with a personal sense of mortality. Portraits of the author's three grown-up children, taken in such a close-up that hair and faces are not visible, it is not easy to distinguish. One of the faces has its eyes closed, another seems to blur, disappear. We came full circle and came to the same place: the relentlessness of time, and the parental fear that something bad would happen to the children - as happened later with Emmett's death.
And also respectful, caring in spirit works, part of a series dedicated to the devastating effects of the disease on the husband's body - a thin arm, a torso that has ceased to be muscular. The series is called "Hephaestus", after the ugly god, the patron of metal work. An intricate cascade of what could be molten metal crosses the image of the torso of a man who is both a lawyer and a blacksmith at the same time. These photographs are a testament to a marriage that is based on trust and love, and a living example of how Sally Mann turns her fears into art.
And the exposition ends with a color video of the author with a brief overview of the flowering green land, where she lived most of her life. My eyes and my mind were so accustomed to black landscapes that the full color video stunned me and I felt like something had gone wrong. Photography can change our lives in many ways.
There is a special heroism in looking directly at all the dark things behind the landscape, at the complexity of one's family and life, the memory of the atrocities in history. There is probably nothing heroic about being "obsessed" with death, but when it leads to the creation of top-class art, the issue can be considered closed by the highest standard. In the end, death is also "fixated" on us, and the last word belongs to her.
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Sally Mann: A Thousand Crossings
The exhibition is open until May 28 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC and then moves to the Peabody Museum in Essex (Salem, Massachusetts), the Getty Museum in Los Angeles and other museums.
Sally Mann (Sally Mann) was born in the United States, Virginia, Lexington, May 1, 1951. At the Putney School (Putney School), with an in-depth study of the visual arts and a rich artistic tradition, Sally Mann receives a secondary education. From that moment on, a passion for photography was born in the little girl, although the motives were far from a love of art.
The awakened interest in the opposite sex at the same time awakened female ingenuity: where else to meet boys, if not in a mysterious dark dark laboratory? By the way, among the first photographs of Sally Mann there are photographs of her naked classmates.
Father, general practitioner R.S. Munger, played the most important role in shaping his daughter's worldview. Thanks to him, the girl was able to realize the truth: “Reputation is something that people with character can live without” from Gone with the Wind. Under the influence of her father, the artistic taste of Sally Mann was also formed. Eccentric "masterpieces" in the form of dog excrement or driftwood resembling a man's penis were common in their home.
Sally's mother always said it was "daddy's girl." Of course, not only was my father not embarrassed by Sally Mann's experiments with nudity, he encouraged them in every possible way. years ago and the almost forgotten wet collodion process. Sally Mann received a high school diploma in 1969, a bachelor's degree in 1974, and a year later she became a master of fine arts (specialty Creative writing (writing skills)). But she never managed to become a writer: after graduating from college, Sally Mann gets a job as a photographer at Washington and Lee University (Washington and Lee University).
In 1977 the first solo exhibition of Sally Mann took place. It took place in Washington DC at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. 1984 was marked by the release of the photo album "Second Sight" ("Clairvoyance"). But these events have passed almost unnoticed. In 1988, Sally Mann released her second photo album, At Twelve: Portraits of Young Women. All works in it are devoted to girls of transitional age, who already "stand with one foot in the adult world."
Although the book received positive reviews from critics, it did not bring Sally Mann wide fame. The third album was released in 1992, its heroes were two daughters and a son, who at the time of the release of the photo album were 7-13 years old. “Immediate Family” (“Closest relatives”) was the title of this book of 65 black-and-white photographs that instantly lifted Sally Mann to the top of the photographic Olympus.
But the reason for success was not the talent of Sally Mann, but the scandal that broke out: a number of critics considered the poses of children in some photographs to be “overtly erotic”. Representatives of several committees generally declared these works "veiled child pornography." It is worth noting that not only American critics attacked Sally Mann, they were joined by respectable housewives, and not only America. Perhaps for housewives this album is something out of the ordinary, but Sally Mann is a photo artist. By the way, children's erotica has never been considered a taboo subject for photo artists.
Lewis Carroll, a famous English writer and photographer, made a number of magnificent photo portraits of naked girls back in the 19th century, which is why later 20th-century researchers branded the writer a pedophile. So, Sally Mann knew what to expect after the publication of such a controversial photo album. The concept of "child sexuality" in the understanding of many contemporaries and law enforcement agencies has a completely different meaning than Sally Mann herself interprets. To protect herself from various legal problems, Sally Mann first consulted with representatives of the prosecutor's office and the FBI, sent two older children to a psychologist to make their voices in support of the mother sound much more convincing. Sally Mann announced publicly that her children have the right to veto the publication of any pictures. For example, daughter Virginia refused to publish a picture in which she relieves herself, Jessie and Emmett did not want the world to see pictures in which they look “silly or crazy.”
The moment came when Sally Mann decided to postpone the publication of the photobook until the children were at least a little older, but they protested violently, and the book was released on schedule. "Next of Kin" caused a wave of quite predictable emotions and brought Sally Mann all-American, and then world-wide fame. The New York Times claimed that no other photographer in the history of photography had broken through to fame so quickly, and The New Republic called the photo album one of the greatest photo books of our time. After the release of "Immediate Family" Sally Mann did not shoot anything comparable in impact to her infamous album.
In 1994, her fourth book, Still Time, was published. The album includes earlier landscape sketches, abstract images, and photographs of her children. In 2003 saw the release of the album "What Remains" ("Remains"), in which Sally Mann wanted to show the diversity of the world around: here are children's faces close-up, and mysterious landscapes, and half-decomposed corpses. In general, the album leaves a depressing and rather strong impression. In 2005 Sally Mann releases her sixth album "Deep South" ("Far South"), which includes photographs of landscapes taken between 1992 and 2004. When each of her albums was published, it was accompanied by exhibitions that were held with considerable success in Europe and America. The exposition included not only "bookish" masterpieces, but also her successful and not quite photographic experiments.
Sally Mann experimented with dog bones for some time after the release of her last book. For her, photography is ambiguity, strangeness, dishonesty. her husband suffers. This disease is incurable, it leads to muscle weakness and, as a result, to a decrease in muscle mass. Her husband, Larry Mann, has these processes in his left arm and right leg.
This work requires a lot of strength and courage. Sally Mann named the project "Marital Trust". The photographs show all aspects of life: the morning toilet, washing, even sex. It is not known whether the world will see these photographs, but Sally Mann herself claims that they are good. Today, Sally Mann is considered one of the most significant American photographers of the late XX - early XXI century. Her track record includes a number of prestigious titles and awards, photographs are sold at various auctions and are among the expositions of the world's largest museums. Sally Mann became the heroine of documentaries: 1994 - “Blood Ties” (“Blood Ties”), which became an Oscar nominee; 2005 - "What Remains" ("The Remains"), which received the Jury Prize at the Atlanta Film Festival (Best Documentary).
May 1, 1951 was born a talented American photographer Sally Mann (Sally Mann)
Sometimes I feel like my only childhood memories are the ones I made up while looking at pictures of myself. Sally Mann
Sally Mann (Sally Mann, in some Russian-language publications she is called Sally Mann) was born on May 1, 1951 in Lexington, Virginia. She received her secondary education at the famous Putney School, known among other things for its artistic traditions and in-depth study of the fine arts. It was there that the girl became addicted to photography, however, for motives very far from love for art. At that time, Sally developed an interest in the opposite sex, and where better to meet boys than in a dark and mysterious darkroom? By the way, among her first photographic experiences were photographs of naked classmates.
An important role in the girl's life, in shaping her worldview, was played by her father, physician Robert C. Munger, who, according to his daughter, looked like a rural doctor from a photo essay by Eugene Smith. It was he who helped Sally realize the truth from Gone with the Wind: "Reputation is something that people of character can live without." He also influenced her artistic taste: “Other families had a nativity scene at Christmas, but my father put other decorations in the living room - for example, a snag in the shape of a penis,” she recalled, “He created eccentric “masterpieces” from anything “For example, the little snake that adorned the center of the dining table was nothing more than dog feces.” The girl adopted a lot from her father: “Outside, Sally looks like me, but inside she is a daddy’s daughter,” her mother claimed.
It is clear that such a parent could not be embarrassed by his daughter's experiments with nudity, he strongly encouraged her studies; in particular, her love for large format began with his camera with 5 by 7 inch negatives. But even this format seemed too small for her: she soon began to photograph on glass plates measuring 8 by 10 inches and using the wet collodion process, invented exactly a hundred years before her birth and already almost forgotten.
In 1969, Sally received a high school diploma, in 1974 she added a bachelor's degree to it, and a year later she became a master of fine arts in the specialty "Writing" ("Creative writing"). However, she did not become a writer; immediately after graduating from college, she got a job as a photographer at the University of Washington and Lee (Washington and Lee University).
Until the early 1990s, Sally Mann's career was not very fast. In 1977 she had her first solo exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington DC. In 1984, the photo album "Clairvoyance" ("Second Sight") was published. Both of these events passed almost unnoticed. Four years later, she released the album At Twelve: Portraits of Young Women (1988), dedicated to girls "of transitional age, one foot in childhood, the other in the adult world." The book received favorable reviews from critics, but the name of Sally Mann remained practically unknown to the general public.
Sally's third photo album Immediate Family (1992) featured her son and two daughters, who were between 7 and 13 years old when the book was published. This relatively small book - only 65 black and white photographs - instantly lifted her to the photographic Olympus. And as often happens, the main reason for such a quick success was not the author's talent, but the scandal accompanying the book: the fact is that, according to a number of critics, the poses of children in some photographs were "blatantly erotic." Representatives of various committees such as Child Protection went even further, declaring the photographs to be "veiled child pornography."
In fairness, it should be noted that not only "stupid American critics" (this definition came across to me in several Russian-language articles) attacked the poor photographer. Respectable housewives - in calls to talk shows, in letters to newspapers and to forums on the Internet - showed themselves to be even more severe fighters for morality. And this is typical not only for conservative America - I easily found a dozen multi-page discussions of Sally Mann's photos on Russian-language forums and I am sure that this is happening in other languages.
“These are innocent childish poses. If you see eroticism in them, then this is a problem of your perception, incorrect adult interpretations, ”her supporters repeat after Sally Mann. “And if you were in her place, would you expose your children, like this, naked, to show off to the whole world?” Their opponents ask. And no one answers anyone. And what's your answer? The poses are indeed childish and innocent - but the book is intended for adults who have "misinterpretations" as well. And a normal layman will never agree to the publication of photographs of their naked children in the media - only after all, Sally Mann is an artist (even with the prefix "photo"), and not at all the average American housewife.
Speaking of photographers. Children's eroticism was never considered taboo among the latter - back in the 19th century, the famous English writer and part-time photographer Lewis Carroll made a number of beautiful photographs of naked girls, which allowed 20th-century researchers to accuse him of pedophilism with might and main. Today, the world community would condemn the photographs of the sons of one of the most famous photographers of all time, Imogen Cunningham, and she did not even suspect that she was doing something reprehensible. The German photographer Wilhelm Plushow was persecuted in Italy in the 1910s (though not for photographs, but for child molestation), while his colleague and compatriot Wilhelm von Gloeden, who had the same vices, lived honorably in Sicily. There is a legend that the English King Edward VII took his photographs to the UK as diplomatic luggage!
This is not a complete list of recognized - and talented - photographers who could be accused of pedophilia, child pornography, and who knows what other sins. But they were “lucky” to create at a time when it was possible to go to jail for homosexuality, and with children (especially with their own) they could do anything. In the last decade of the 20th century, the situation changed dramatically: death prevented Robert Mapplethorpe from being accused of producing child pornography, but on April 7, 1990, the director of the Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center in Ohio, which hosted an exhibition of the deceased, was arrested. And even though the court later acquitted him, the supporters of freedom of creativity had one less illusion. On April 25 of the same year, San Francisco cops, accompanied by FBI agents, broke into the studio of Jock Sturges, known for his photographs of teenagers on nude beaches.
The art community in the United States and Europe came to the defense of their brethren and, thanks in large part to this support, the court did not bring any charges against Sturges. As for the “non-artistic community”, opinions were divided here, although it must be admitted that rallies under the slogans “Stop Pornography” took place more often.
I dwell on these details in such detail to show that Sally Mann knew very well what dangers threatened her, that she went into publishing the photo album quite consciously - I remind the reader that the book was published in 1992, two years after the events described above. And when she claimed that "children's sexuality is a combination of words that are opposite in meaning," she was aware (more precisely, she should have given) that law enforcement agencies, and many of her contemporaries, think otherwise.
Before publishing the book, the author tried to protect herself from possible legal troubles. She consulted with representatives of the FBI and the prosecutor's office, enlisted the support of children, and in order to betray their voices with greater persuasiveness, she sent two elders for examination by a psychologist. It was announced that children had the right to veto the publication of certain photographs - it probably was so in reality, but Sally Mann did not forget to mention this publicly. So, for example, the youngest daughter Virginia did not want readers to see how she relieves a small need, and Emmett and Jesse demanded to remove the photos in which they looked like “crazy or silly”. But the lack of clothes did not bother them at all. They were looking forward to the release of the album, and when the mother hinted at postponing the publication for several years (“until the children begin to live in other bodies”), they protested violently. In the end, it turned out that Sally Mann decided to publish only yielding to the wishes of the children!
Be that as it may, in 1992 the book was published. It caused a quite predictable storm of emotions and brought its author all-American, and soon worldwide fame. The New Republic magazine described the album as "one of the greatest photographic books of our time," The New York Times stated that "no other photographer in history has shot to stardom so quickly." And the fact that fame turned out to be somewhat more scandalous than the author would like - apparently this could have been avoided, but then the path to the top would require much more time and effort. And would she get there? Looking ahead a little, I note that not before the release of "Immediate Family", not after that, Sally Mann did not create anything equal in terms of impact. And it's not just scandalous - just look at the album to understand that we are dealing with a great artist. Moreover, I would venture to say that for such a statement it is enough to look at the photos from the album on the monitor screen; although if you have the opportunity to purchase an album or visit an exhibition - be sure to do it.
Helmut Newton wrote in his autobiography that the story of the path to success could be interesting; the description of the success itself, "simply is of no interest to readers." This fully applies to Sally Mann, so I will only schematically describe her further work. In 1994, she published her fourth book, Still Time, which included both photographs of her children and earlier sketches of nature, several abstract photographs. In 2003, the album “Remains” (“What Remains”) was released, in which she decided to show different facets of the world around us: here are mysterious landscapes, close-ups of children's faces, and half-decomposed corpses (involuntarily, an association arises with a snake from dog excrement at a dining room). little Sally's desk). “Death is powerful and is best seen as a vantage point from which life can be seen more fully. That is why my project ends with pictures of living people, my own children,” she revealed her plan. In general, the album makes a strong, albeit depressing, impression. Sally Mann's sixth photo album Deep South (2005) includes 65 landscape photographs taken between 1992 and 2004.
The release of each album was accompanied by exhibitions that were successfully held in America and Europe. Of course, she exhibited not only photographs included in the albums, exhibition visitors could get acquainted with her successful and not so successful experiments in various fields. So, after Deep South, for some time she made and photographed still lifes from ... dog bones (again, the snake on the dining table comes to mind). “What I like about these dog bones is their uncertainty, their ambiguity,” she explained. “I mean, I really love her dishonesty in photography. It has to be weird in some way, or it's not for me."
One of her latest projects is a photographic study of muscle atrophy, which her husband has suffered since 1994. This incurable disease leads to weakening of the muscles and a decrease in muscle mass (in the case of Larry Mann, in the right leg and in the left arm). It is clear that this disease does not paint a person and considerable courage is required from both spouses in order to continue working. Sally calls the project "Marital Trust" - it includes all aspects of life: washing, morning toilet, gardening, even sex. Will we ever see these photos? “I only know that they exist and that they are good,” says the photographer, “maybe they will never be published. Maybe after my death. But the fact that these photographs are in a box in my laboratory is of great importance to me.”
There are very few examples of such projects in the history of photography: to be honest, the only ones that come to my mind are Richard Avedon and Pedro Meyer, who photographed the process of dying of their parents. In all likelihood, Sally Mann has the unfortunate honor of being the first female photographer to do this, so perhaps we will have to witness the scandal associated with her name.
Now we can say with confidence that Sally Mann is one of the most significant American photographers of the late XX - early XXI century. She has received a number of prestigious awards and titles, her photographs are sold at auctions and are included in the permanent exhibitions of the world's leading museums. She was the subject of two documentaries: "Blood Ties" ("Blood Ties", 1994), nominated for an Oscar in the category of Best Documentary, and "The Remains" ("What Remains", 2005), won the Jury Prize for Best Documentary at the Atlanta Film Festival.
This American woman became famous for her candid shots, in which her children were the main characters. In poignant photos, the game and reality were mixed, resulting in a wonderful cocktail called "Next of Kin", which caused a real flurry of emotions. The photographer was hit by public criticism, and Sally Mann (Sally Mann) was accused of veiled child pornography.
Scandalous project
The author of provocative works, whose favorite technique is black and white photography, was born in 1951 in Virginia. Even at school, a little girl loves to develop pictures, and with age she begins experiments with nudity. After graduating from college, she works as a photographer and arranges solo exhibitions of her works. However, critics do not pay attention to the new name, and Sally Mann's work remains unknown to the general public.
And only in 1992, when the project "Closest Relatives" saw the light, did the American become famous. Unfortunately, she gained fame after a scandal broke out, when a respectable public saw obscene poses in children's photographs. "Intimate shots are completely normal things that I see as a mother," said Sally Mann. The children of the author of works that caused resonance in society were involved in the creative process from infancy, and the woman considers successful shots a real gift of fate.
Documented family life
So she documented the life of her family, revealing the happy childhood of three children under the age of 10 from unexpected angles that the public perceived with indignation. The footage was taken while relaxing in a family house by the river, where daughters and son had fun and played in the nude, and housewives could not understand how it was possible to put their children on public display in this form.
The author of the scandalous photos foresaw a violent reaction from society and consulted with lawyers who said that for some of the pictures she could even be arrested. Sally wanted to postpone the exhibition for 10 years, so that the grown-up children would make their own decision and understand the consequences of making the images public. However, the guys did not want to wait so long, and a psychologist was invited to them, who made sure that they consciously make their choice, understanding what the publication could lead to. The children themselves selected the frames they liked for the album. The well-known psychiatrist A. Esman said after the scandal that the pictures that provoked public anger "are not erotically stimulating."
Be that as it may, but the album was released, and fierce criticism did not interfere with the growth of popularity.
Viewer reviews
The audience was divided into two camps: some were outraged by the provocative pictures that depicted children, others reacted to the veiled erotica with understanding, believing that the photographer Sally Mann, who knew about the puritanical upbringing of society, deliberately took such a step to add to her popularity. She knew exactly what kind of reaction a controversial project would cause. However, the thoughtful public saw harmony and beauty in everyday life in talented black and white works.
New provocation
Another scandal erupted 13 years ago at an exhibition in Washington, which bore the telling name "Remains". The main theme was death, about which Sally Mann said that "it must be perceived as a kind of point that allows you to more fully see life." Viewers who have become acquainted with the works, united by the theme of the inevitability of the end, understand that the shadow of an old woman with a scythe haunts them all the time.
An American exhibits what is left of a dead dog on public display, removes decomposed bodies, but the last part of the exhibition, dedicated to her children, inspires hope, and studies of death end with love. The author of provocative works claims that the inevitability of death helps us to feel the fullness of life, painted with iridescent hues.
Investigation of the husband's illness
In the galleries of the world, a successful photographer exhibits the work of the early period of creativity, showing the world from different angles. She creates abstract pictures, landscapes, and some of them look into the lens of Sally Mann's sick husband - Larry, who suffers from muscle atrophy. The American woman displayed her long family life in a separate project called "Spousal Trust" and covering thirty years of photos, including the most intimate ones.
With courage, she explores an incurable disease, honestly looking into the lens of her camera. She knows that the viewer may not see all the candid works, but this does not frighten her: "Perhaps they will only get acquainted with them after my death, but I know that the photographs are already in the laboratory."
Monochrome works
Describing the nature of the unique work of the master, who has received many prestigious awards, is not an easy task. The shots of the original author resemble dreams or visions. The staged photographs of Sally Mann are kept to a minimum, and her characters resemble people living on another planet and gradually forgetting about their past.
The absence of color in the works is a conscious choice of the creator, who vividly manifests a unique style and creates a special magic. An American with a talent from God sees our world through a camera lens differently than ordinary people, and she tries to convey her view of reality to the audience. Some of her works cause real delight, while others condemn them.
Children's problems in the photo
The protagonist of two documentaries, Sally Mann, whose photographs often show her family members, captures various episodes of childhood and touches on difficult moments in a child's life. It tells about loneliness, self-doubt, vicious thoughts, which are not customary to talk about openly in society, and such sincerity is shocking to many. The master reveals the problems that concern children at any age, to which parents often turn a blind eye.
unreal landscapes
It must be admitted that the winner in 2001 of the award "Best Photographer of America" Sally captures not only people, but also creates stunning monochrome landscapes. Thanks to a special vision of the environment, she produces mystical works, and it seems to the audience that they are entering another reality, where there is no human fuss. This is a completely different world in which life flows according to its own laws and rules.
Sally Mann: banned photographer
In 2015, Roskomnadzor blocked the pages of the world's leading art portal, which contained pictures of an American woman often accused of child pornography. Russian users won't be able to see the controversial master's work, which includes a rare "Three Graces" photograph taken in 1994. It depicts three naked girls.
Now Sally, whose black-and-white works are presented in various galleries and museums around the world, lives with her family on a farm in Virginia and continues to work, once again referring to the theme of the human body.
“If my pictures are in the public space and if you see eroticism in them, this is a problem of your perception or a matter of your incorrect adult interpretations.”
In 1977, the first solo exhibition of an American artist was held. It took place in Washington, DC, at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. 1984 for Sally Mann was marked by the end of work on the Second Sight series (“Clairvoyance”) and the release of the photo album of the same name. But these events passed almost unnoticed by the public and caused a weak reaction from art critics. In 1988, Sally Mann released her second photo album - At Twelve: Portraits of Young Women ("Twelve years: a portrait of a young woman"), dedicated to girls of adolescence, which caused a mixed reaction from the public. Equally controversial, but much more violent, was her next book, Immediate Family, published in 1992. The album consisted of images of Sally Mann's husband and three children, which, according to the photographer and fans of her talent, were presented in "innocent childish poses", and according to a number of critics and various committees for the protection of children's rights, these poses were "overtly erotic" .
The pictures, which depict sleeping, playing, half-dressed, and sometimes completely naked teenagers, evoked a sense of serenity, told about the past, about the warm summer and childhood, which was now distant and irrevocable. And on the other hand, they prompted ambiguous reflections, ambiguous associations, dictated by the rather adult poses of children. Hidden and overt fears that any parent could feel towards their child were realized in Sally Mann's photographs with eidetic clarity.
In addition to moral issues, Sally Mann's work has raised personal and legal issues. Some critics went even further, declaring the artist's Close Relatives photographs to be veiled child pornography: "If, as she says, the main task of motherhood is to protect children from all kinds of harm, why does she deliberately deprive her children of the right to choose to be non-public? Why put them at risk by showing their personal photos to a world where pedophilia exists? Can young children knowingly give their consent and take part in the shooting of such controversial portraits, even if the artist is their parent?
Discussions around the work of Sally Mann will continue for a long time - viewers and critics are still arguing about the motives that preceded the appearance of the pictures of the American artist. Were the sensory images that we see in the photographs the result of the natural behavior of children, or were they specially shaped by the author's fantasies for the audience? Is it the desire to shock the public, the risk, the courage or the willingness to photograph what most people were ashamed of when they became adults? Sally Mann's articulation is quite logical: “These are innocent childish poses. Look at your family albums that show you and your parents without diapers. If my pictures got into the public space and if you see eroticism in them, this is a problem of your perception or a matter of your incorrect adult interpretations. I always look at people and places to which I am not indifferent, I look at the same time with an ardent passion, and with a frank aesthetic, cold assessment. I look with passion of eye and heart, but in this ardent heart there must also be a piece of ice. Most of the pictures show things and people that I love, that fascinate and touch me, but this does not mean that it is easy for me to see or do them. Like Flaubert, I have two holy rules in my work: sinfulness and perfection. The first is usually innate, the second has to be achieved. Aside from the usual "coincidence" that sometimes rewards work, making art requires perseverance, a ridiculous combination of hummingbird and bulldozer, and, most of all, practice. Surveillance practices,” she wrote in response to the latest allegations.
But criticism, on the one hand, did not subside, and on the other hand, did not interfere with the growth of her popularity at all. In 2004, a new scandal erupted around the name of Sally Mann, which, like the previous ones, added to her popularity - the Washington Museum of Art hosted the exhibition “Remains” (What Remains). The five-part exposition included more than 90 works. There you could see pictures of half-decomposed corpses, mysterious landscapes and incredibly beautiful portraits of people. “Death is powerful,” said Sally Mann at the opening of the exhibition, “and it is best seen as a vantage point from which life can be seen more fully. That's why my project ends with pictures of living people, my own children."
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Sally Mann received a large number of prestigious awards, in 2001 Time magazine named her "America's Best Photographer" - Mann's pictures appeared twice on the cover of this publication. Probably no photographer has enjoyed such success in the art world - Sally Mann's work is included in the permanent collections of many museums, among them: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Sun Museum of Modern Art Francisco, MoMa, the Whitney Museum in New York, etc.
Mann has been the subject of two documentaries directed by Steve Cantor. Blood Ties debuted at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Documentary Short Film category. The second film - "The Remains", - shot by the same director, was first shown in 2006. This film was nominated for an Emmy for Best Documentary in 2008.
In 2009, a series of photographs Proud Flesh (“Proud Flesh”) was published - this is a six-year study of her husband's muscular dystrophy and the story of a delicate relationship of close people, in which one is terminally ill. The project was also ambiguously perceived by art critics, but was successfully demonstrated at the Larry Gagosian Gallery in October of the same year. Here is what Sally Mann herself says about the Proud Flesh project:
“I am a woman who looks. In traditional stories, watching women, especially those who gazed at men, were punished. Remember the unfortunate Psyche, forever punished for daring to raise the lantern to see her beloved.
I remember countless men from Bonnard to Callahan photographing their wives and lovers, but I find it hard to find parallel examples among photographers of my gender. An appraising look at a man, a look into the eyes on the street, a request to take a picture of him, to examine his body has always been considered shameless on the part of a woman, while the same actions on the part of a man are ubiquitous and even expected.
I have been staring at my husband ever since he first entered the room where I sat on a worn chenille couch in some student apartment. My eyes rested on him with keen interest, furtively studying this tall man. Six months later we got married. It was forty years ago, and the first thing I did was take a picture of it.
But this long story did nothing to make my work on Proud Flesh any easier. You can beat around the bush rhetorically, but at the root of any interaction between photographer and model is exploitation, even forty years later. Both Larry and I both understand how ethically complex and powerful the act of taking a photo is, how loaded it is with such concepts as honesty, responsibility, strength and complicity, and that so many good images come, one way or another, thanks to the model.
It testifies to the great dignity and courage of Larry that he allowed me to take these photos. It is quite possible that the gods would have knocked the lantern out of my raised hand as a man lay before me, naked and unprotected, as if unfortunate, sprawled on a mythical mountain infested with predators. At our age, when the peak of life is behind us and we are left with our tendons and flabbiness of the body, Larry bears with high divine nobility the grief from the early onslaught of muscular dystrophy. That he did it so readily is both touching and terrifying.”
One of Sally Mann's ongoing projects is called the Marital Trust. This is a photographic history of the details of the married life of Sally and her husband, covering a period of thirty years of their married life. The project is a continuation of the series of works "Proud Flesh", the final dates of implementation or the exhibition have not yet been announced.
TEXT: Yaroslav Solop
