In reply to my question about how such bodies are found by photographers, I was sent an explanation about body farms which contained a reference to one such farm "believed" to be close to London.
Any U.K. APUGers stuck for a venue for the meeting after next, please contact me. Boy, have I got a weekend for you!
I find her printing to be work extremely well for the subject matter. The photo mentioned of the blonde child in the foreground with the background burned in is probably "Candy Cigarette". That photo was done in 1989. Printing down the secondary subjects to make the primary subject dominate the image was a technique used more often then than it is today. I continue to consider it a valid technique and use it myself when warranted. But then, I'm mentally and aesthetically stuck in the photography from the middle and late 20th Century. In the 21st Century we've become accustomed to images manipulated digitally to creamy perfection in technique and composition.
I saw a couple of Sally Mann prints including "Candy Cigarette" in an exhibition called "Girls on the Verge: Portraits of Adolescence" at the Art Institute of Chicago today, and controversy aside, she really is a great printer. In a show of many excellent prints, the Sally Manns just have a luminosity that the other B&W prints don't.
Large format w/ wet plate to photograph a corpse? Whatever for?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Svend Videbak
A Sally Mann exhibition is running at Helsinki's "Tennis Palace" and attracting controversy. Heard on the radio that a "group of seven people" have asked the police to investigate whether certain of the pictures are "hurtful to humanity" (a rough translation of the Finnish). I've been to see the show, which comprises some of the older pictures of her children including all the most famous ones, a series of large wet-plate landscapes, a series of large close-up portraits of a daughter, and a series of wet-plate studies of murder victims.
What did I think... Well, the pictures of her children certainly do not constitute child pornography, not in this universe or any number of alternate ones. A couple of these pictures are exceptional, very beautiful. I was disappointed in the print-making, which was heavy-handed. Much isolating of the central figure and heavy, heavy, heavy burning down of all surroundings.
Of the landscapes, one was exceptional to my mind. Useless to try to describe it. The rest were not particularly interesting, southern gothic sounding a monotonous note.
The series of large, close-up pictures of her daughter -- perhaps 10 in all, wet-plate, rough application of emulsion, there was graphical interest yes, relying on the spontaneousness of the medium used rough. Not much progression from picture to picture. Maybe would repay longer contemplation.
Turning to the hurting of humanity, the picture of a dead obese woman, naked, lying face down, her corpse decaying, the flesh falling away, who has been brutally tortured as evidenced by wires around her wrists having visibly dug into the flesh splayed open and pulpy, her body dumped in a forest clearing, decaying leaves piled up against her rancid buttocks, the large format camera placed close, the angle of view slightly downwards, the wet plate emulsified on the spot presumably amidst the buzzing of flies and the stench of death.
I felt a pang of embarrassment for the photographer, who obviously does not understand. But I inspected the pictures, which are very well done technically, and strode out of the room washing myself mentally as I went. The pictures are not hurtful to humanity, they are merely beneath contempt. Just another iteration of the bile spewing across the nation's television screens, iPods and computer monitors. If the Helsinki police condemn these pictures, they must condemn much else as well.
I remember the exact time I first saw the book "What Remains." It was about a week after we buried my mother and I got really uneasy and put it down. I felt dirty after seeing it. I personally think she crossed the line. I don't know if the death of my mother tainted my opinion or not, but I really feel there are some things that just don't translate to film and death is one of them. I don't want to judge this most excellent artist rather just choose not to view some of her work.
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"EVERY film and paper is good .......... for something"
Phil Davis
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Large format w/ wet plate to photograph a corpse? Whatever for?
Sometimes the fact that a particular subject matter is distrurbing is a good reason to examine that subject matter. As long as the disturbance is not the only reason for its exsistance.
Are the photos much different than the recent (and I believe, on-going) exhibits of human bodies? A quote from the "Bodies...The Exhibition":
"These Exhibitions--which feature actual human specimens--allow people of all ages access to sights and knowledge normally reserved only for medical professionals. Take the opportunity to peer inside yourself, to better understand how your elaborate and fascinating body works, and how you can become a more informed participant in your own health care."
Though granted that the latter case the bodies are nicely cleaned up and scientificly prepared and presented.
Vaughn
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At least with LF landscape, a bad day of photography can be a good day of exercise.
Since Sally Mann was brought up, she has a show up at the Edwynn Houk Gallery in NYC. Its a really big chunk of the Immediate Family work, something like 30 prints. Its absolutely beautiful in my opinion, and since that work as a whole doesn't get shown all too often anymore I would highly recommend seeing it. I think its up until January 12th or something like that.
Yeah, the show at the Edwynn Houk Gallery is great. I have liked her Immediate Family series for a long time and it was absolutely amazing to get to see the prints in person. I they were not 'heavy-handed' at all, they were sublimely printed.
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