Sally Mann What Remains

Sally Mann: What Remains documents the artwork of Sally Mann, photographer. Mann is known for photographing her children in their youth. What remains is an insight to her work beyond the controversial and well-known images of her children. Although Mann’s photographic style and technique remains the same, the laborious and archaic wet collodion process; images of her husband and of the land around her farm show a deeper sense of Mann’s artistic nature. What Remains is a culmination of several bodies of work that tie together, creating a larger message surrounding the life and death cycle. She has combined images of her farm, decaying bodies and close up images of familial faces into a beautiful and humanly touching body of work.

In both bodies of work, What Remains and images of her children, we are witness to the full, unrestricted access Mann has to the people and spaces in her intimate life. Access in the sense that she is allowed into personal spaces on a continuous basis along with the amount of trust it requires for a photographic relationship to exist and to publically share these images. This type of relationship is not common of most photographers. Thinking of my own family and the access they grant me seems very limited in comparison. When my child was younger, around age six, I had unparallel access to her every waking and sleeping moment- compared to now at age twelve. At that time I was just beginning photography and did not know the value of the photographic relationship nor did I realize I would slowly lose access to her in personal and intimate ways. Although there exists a trust between us, she has developed a self-consciousness that does not allow her to be photographically studied.

At times I have turned to my surroundings as means of documentation and photographic analysis. This exercise forced my eye to examine and find meaning in the objects and arrangement of my personal space, of my home. I found this to be inspirational as many ideas and feelings surfaced in the images that crossed over into the intimate relationships of the people living in this shared space. I found that documenting intimate spaces was a process of identification and detachment. While making the images I felt I had to identify with particular objects in order to see contextual relevance at the same time a sort of detachment was necessary in order to show the images to outside viewers as well as determine what was necessary imagery (to tell a story or give an accurate description) versus emotional attachment. The idea of another person dissecting my personal space at the same time as critiquing the aesthetic nature of the images proved to be a special challenge.

I imagine if my photographic technique was similar in nature to Mann’s, a slow meticulous process where every shot was carefully constructed and considered rather than the digital hand held format, easily manipulated and under valued, I would induce a different relationship with my family and surroundings. With Mann’s images there is a special function of delay, the time consuming nature of wet collodion and the precious nature of glass negatives combine to make sitting for this type of photograph an experience all in its own. Transitioning into a larger format camera would shift the type the relationship I have with my family and personal space. I imagine they would act differently to the amount of time and detail each shot required. I am not sure if it would be positive or negative, but if that was the only way I photographed I would surely miss out on all the small details of life- candid and spontaneous, irrelevant yet poignant, frustrating and life affirming.

A key component that sticks out in the film was the idea of the emotional connection Mann and her subject share. No matter the delivery, technique or subject- there is an inherent connection that supersedes all else.