Sally Mann: Reading Monochrome

After watching her video and how she turns from her family photographer then become one of the most respectful American photographers in USA makes me recognizes two external factors that make an art valuable. (1) Time, the older the art work is, the more worth it is. Like the picture of her kids that she took in the 90es. (2) Sticking on the preferred techniques and media even if the whole world has changed its way. Mann is consistent in choosing the media and camera that she wants to use. Her resistant to new digital era and her perseverance have turned her into a unique eccentric photographer.

Sally Mann 

I think Mann already knew that her works are precious. It was just about a time when the world will turn and see her works. Her works are immensely influenced by her deep thought about each curve of life. Appreciation of moment has helped her put her vision and ideas into pictures. She even could see dead body as speaking piece of art in her mind which is still very odd to me. However when I saw the picture of the half legs in jeans on the brown leaves in the fall, it beautifully scared me. I feel most of her works can capture the dark and white spirit within a human. I am also amazed with each portrait in which how her lens can pin the eyes and make me feel like I can see a story that probably I would never discover behind the person inside the picture.

Sally Mann

Black and white photography makes her work even speak louder. I even feel pictures that she recently took are not from this age. The techniques and the media makes the pictures travel to the past. I remember her comment when she saw some legs of a corpse; she said that their color is beautiful. It is interesting to know that Mann still thinks about the color even in black and white photography. I feel she could imagine the colors in the form of the shades of black and white. However, it is odd to see that someone says something beautiful about a rotten body. Don’t you feel so, do you? Probably that oddity adds more value to her character as an artist. This is the thing that puzzled me. How an artist can turn all dark things into great work in which mix of sadness, beauty and negative feeling.

There are some ethical questions raise in my mind related to her work especially when she captured her daughter with a candy bar that look likes a cigarette. As a mother of three children has she ever thought that it is not educative. I am wondering how she cope with the idea “Nothing wrong in art” that likely clashes with an idea of being a mother, a role model of her kids. Another question is why most of her works are dominated by project with her family? Is she afraid to work with other models and other young kids? I think as a professional photographer she should open up more to include people which are not only from her circle.

Parting from the pro and cons that I notice from her works and the video that I watched, Sally Mann makes me interested in learning and working more on portrait.