Film Response: I Love Sally Mann / I Don’t Understand Sally Mann

I recently watched What Remains: The Life and Work of Sally Mann, a film about the work of Sally Mann, a well-known female American photographer. She is best known for an arguably provocative series of family portraits entitled Immediate Family, which debuted in the early 1990’s. Her approach to this project is presented in the film as having been controlled and willful. I recall scenes in the film where a young Sally Mann is directing her three children confidently and with a clear idea of the image she seeks. This is the Sally Mann I adore. But later in the film, after she decides it is time to start a new project to be displayed and critiqued, she begins to welcome the unintentional and the uncertain into her creative process. The resulting images are, for lack of a better word, dirty. Call me old-fashioned, but I have a lot of trouble appreciating chance as a tool or method in any artistic endeavor.

Immediate Family is about as personal as photography can be without degrading into pornography. But the formal traits of composition and tone are so well executed that the cliché “fine art” is actually fitting. While watching the film, above all else I have to say that I found myself envying the ease with which she achieved success by photographing the subject not only most dear to her, but also the most convenient and accessible. I agree that great photographs are everywhere, in every moment, as if waiting to be captured, or as Sally Mann put it “right under my nose.” And her chosen subject for this project afforded her ample opportunity to seize such moments. What I like most about this project is how she approached it. She appears to be merely influenced by the chance moments, but once she has been inspired she takes over, directing and arranging her children according to her vision and will. The resulting images are profound and stunning and display a sense of purpose and decisiveness that I admire.

I have never attempted a project so personal, or one involving the people I love. While I know I could, and that I would be happy with the result, I am not sure what the point would be. And it certainly would be cheap, after watching a movie about Sally Mann, to embark on a project intimately photographing my family. Perhaps when I have kids, and my primary duty is to raise them, then I could appreciate a project of this nature.

As a dog owner and rock climber I found quite a bit of inspiration in seeing a photographer, in the field camping with her dog, and calling it work - I really, really like that idea. For me, it will probably (read hopefully) be at the base of cliff, with a group of rock climbers seated around a fire, discussing tomorrow’s probable ascent, and me working out the angles I want to be at throughout it.

Perhaps later in my life I may begin to appreciate the accidental and embrace, as Sally Mann put it, the Angel of Uncertainty, but for the time being I see no need nor any room in art for it. I may be old-fashioned, but right now I am infatuated with art that has as its purpose the embodiment of its creator’s concepts, I seek out the Angel of Certainty in my photographs, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

After watching the film I have a new appreciation for the Immediate Family series, of which I had previously only seen one print. I look forward to her images coming to mind the next time I'm out shooting.