The book 'What Remains' is a very hard book to peruse...
Fot those interested, there is a very well done documentary of Mann and some of the things she went though in working on this project from beginning through the open of the exhibition. I seem to remember she got the idea from a body found on her property. If I am not mistaken, that body was the first she photographed.
I really find it interesting that there is all this consternation going on in Finland. Usually on this site the it's the European folk who are always telling us how "prudish" and "conservative" we Americans are.
EDIT: Oh, BTW, I forgot to mention there are full frontal pics (to the waistline) of the fellow posted as advertisements for the exhibit on bus shelters all over NYC.
Location: Helsinki, Finland for over 14 years now.
Posts: 755
No, there isn't a lot of consternation in Finland over the show -- just a couple people bothering the police with it. A little media play. I guess I wasn't clear in what I initially wrote, that the take-out of the show for me is three very fine and memorable pictures (the "corpse" pictures I dismiss, photography isn't up to that job), which is by far the best take-out of any photographic exhibition I've seen in years.
When I studied to become a journalist we were told to not blow up stuff that is simply reported to the police or some other civil service, since it really doesn't mean anything until, at least, there is some rule that makes it probable that there will be some sort of investigation or trial. As you say, just some people bothering the police.
But did you really think the print making was dull? If it was the same images that I saw in Stockholm earlier this year, I must say that I would love to get a pointer on were to find something even better? I found especially the earlier, immediate family-work, that wasn't enlarged up to a square meter, very powerful.
/matti
Just two words: Joel-Peter Witkin.
Some think of him as a genius. Sally Mann's images are tame by comparison, but equally as thought provoking.
-Terry-
I'm new here, I'll introduce myself shortly in appropriate thread.
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Actually, I think the "body farm" is near Knoxville, Tennessee. Cadavers are allowed to decompose naturally, under varying conditions (in open fields, car trunks, etc), and evaluated so the forensic scientists can more accurately evaluate real-life (so called) situations, with insects, enzymes, etc.
Knowing how one little dead rat can make a whole house practically unlivable, I can't imagine the oders sticking perminently to her Deardorf!
Location: Helsinki, Finland for over 14 years now.
Posts: 755
<But did you really think the print making was dull? If it was the same images that I saw in Stockholm earlier this year, I must say that I would love to get a pointer on were to find something even better? I found especially the earlier, immediate family-work, that wasn't enlarged up to a square meter, very powerful.<
One must discuss specific pictures or it's beating-around-the-bush. Yes, I thought much of the print-making was ruinous. Example: the landscape picture of the girl, nude from the waist up (as I remember but she might have been clothed), a beautiful girl with long blonde hair, standing in the middle of a dirt track, centred in the frame. Behind, a child figure out of focus, and further behind a barely distinguishable child on home-made stilts making his or her way up the track. An extraordinary setting, a surreal touch in the form of the child on stilts. The print was made such that all light was focused on the girl -- the entire surroundings were burned down heavily and clumsily. The effect is that of a spotlighted figure on a stage. Well, sure, the point is made. We are not to miss the beautiful figure of the girl. This is like a Steven Spielberg movie: "I'm making a point now. There, I made it. Must make sure you got it. Bang! Did you get it now? Bang! Did you get it now? Bang! Did you get it now? Moron, hello, is there anybody in there?!" I'm not saying that it would be easy to make this picture with both subtlety and strength -- chiaroscuro is only fully realized in the hands of Rembrandt -- but made the way it is, the real interest of the picture is lost entirely. Quite a few of the "family pictures" were like this.
I'm inclined to agree that her printing of the "Immediate Family" work is heavy handed. Subtle is not a trait of her work to be sure. It's too bad, too. That picture you describe with the stilts is one her her best, imho, but I've only seen it in her book.
I thought Sally Mann as well as Jock Sturges and few others controversies are ended story. They and their work were so many time under investigations, criticized, in police, in court, and they allways get out as "winners" from all these situations. So, when people will get it: their work is controversial but it is legal, and that is that.
On the other side there will allways be people and groups of people who will try to impose their thinkings and moral or estetic values as values of society. Oh, well, price for demokracy I guess...
So, Sally Mann had controversial exhibition. What's new
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Bosnia... You don't have to be crazy to live here, but it helps...
Just two words: Joel-Peter Witkin.
Some think of him as a genius. Sally Mann's images are tame by comparison, but equally as thought provoking..
Absolutely - I'm in the JPW is a genius camp, I love his work. Never seen a Sally Mann that I like, but that's probably just because I haven't been exposed to enough - only the standard headline grabbers. If this exhibition were here in the UK, I'd be there...
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