Sally Mann's Exposure in NYT Magazine

[lynnb]

A fascinating article by Mann in the NYT Magazine, about the publishing of Immediate Family and the controversy that followed. Highly recommended.

For those not familiar with Mann's work, Immediate Family is a collection of large format photographs of her young family as they grew up on a remote rural property in the backwoods of Virginia.

Also mentioned over on TOP.

 

[JP Owens]

It was really interesting to read that article from the time. I remember the controversy that she created (which seems very odd, now). I've been a fan of Mann's for years. She has never been afraid to point her camera at anything, including decaying bodies in her book "What Remains."

 

[Jerevan]

It strikes me now how much more intense the exposure to raw, uninhibited emotions (of various kinds) Sally Mann maybe would have been today, with everything being so instant. Firestorms of indignant protests on facebook, forums, etc, etc ...

Very insightful and enlightening article to me about her views "behind the scene", by the way.

 

[De_Corday]

I love hearing her thought process on this. Great piece.

 

[daveleo]

Thanks for the story, Lynn.
Very articulate writing.

 

[uhoh7]

Great Link TY 🙂

 

[Out to Lunch]

Thanks for sharing. I believe she is an extraordinary artist.

 

[seakayaker1]

Enjoyed the article very much, thank you for the link.

 

[icebear]

All the enraged protesters, voicing their opinion then by hand written letters, now in "social" media, touting their moral outrage over some naked skin, even it's for a fraction of a second and most only have realized it in watching the replay [... remember nipple gate?] all these folks are just exposing their own screwed phantasies. Just thinking that kids at that time, in this environment being naturally without clothes and not having any thoughts about sex and not being abused, no ... that is too simple, there must be something bad behind this 🙄.

 

[Paddy C]

I'm an extremely liberal person and I love Mann's work. But I will confess that Immediate Family can make me uncomfortable. I love the work and probably actual like that uncomfortable part but I think there are two extremes of opinion:

Those who attack it without sufficient thought and those that defend it without sufficient thought.

 

[Ranchu]

It's a good read, it's interesting that there are no easy answers, the people who chastised her for putting her children at risk were right, they got a stalker. I've never been able to really grasp the way people were so horrified by the actual pictures, it seemed obvious to me that this was what they were, and beautifully so.

"Another loaded issue the photos raise is the nature of desire — there is sexual desire, but there is also maternal desire, marrow-deep and stronger than death. When the doctor handed Emmett to me, tallowy and streaked with blood, it was the first time I’d ever really held a baby. Here he was, the flesh of my flesh. I was gobsmacked by my babies: their meaty beauty and smell, the doughy smoothness of their skin, the pulsing crater of fontanel. I loved the whole sensual package with a ferocious intensity. Yes, it was a physical desire, a parental carnality, even a kind of primal parental eroticism, but to confuse it with what we call sexuality, interadult sexual relations, is a category error."

 

[ColSebastianMoran]

I suppose really great artists take risks and make us uncomfortable.

She certainly produces wonderful images.

 

[Pfreddee]

Beautiful photos of a time long gone. Very articulate defense of her work. I'm sorry she went through the troubles. As to how you interpret the work, as in everything else photographic, "It depends."

With best regards,

Pfreddee(Stephen)

 

[robert blu]

Thanks Lynn for the link, it's an interesting reading. She's a great photographer and she believes in what is doing.
robert

 

[willie_901]

Sally Mann is the living photographer I admire the most.

Some of her work after Immediate Family also required exceptional artistic courage. Her children were courageous then and they still are as adults. How come her kids turned out so well?

Beside the puritanical zealots, more serious critics seem more envy driven. As with all artists, time will be tell.

It's interesting Mann consulted with an expert in the FBI before publishing her work. I can't understand how rational people can insist she was naive or irresponsible.

 

[Chris Bail]

An excellent read. Thanks for sharing, Lynn.

 

[gb hill]

When I used to make deliveries up in Lexington Va. I always hoped to run into Sally Mann somewhere. Of course I never did. Always thought of her photography as innocent & I just don't get what anyone would see sexual in a desirable & lustful way looking at a child.

I do believe if she were making & publishing those photo's today the Gestapo would be kicking her door in & child protection services would strip her of her children.

 

[Bille]

Thanks for the link. (A copy of "Immediate Family" is standing next to Liebermanns "Farm Boy" right on the book shelf left of me now...)

 

[Pablito]

Too florid; both the photographs and the writing. She's very skilled, very good at what she does, and I like her conviction. Just not my taste or my sensibility. Zero interest in meeting her or talking to her. No accounting for taste.

For those who are interested, her interview with Charlie Rose is on YouTube.