Sally Mann: photography and artistic vision

Sally Mann was born in Lexington, Virginia, in 1951 and is largely recognized as one of the most influential photographers in the U.S. In order to gain a better understanding of her life and the messages she wanted to express one needs to focus on her thinking in general, as her works, taken individually, cannot provide information concerning the artist's life. It is impressive that her works are not just 'beautiful', they are striking and it practically seems that they challenge viewers to get actively involved in discussing them. Her works are thus impressive both through their beauty and because of the thoughts they induce in individuals looking at them.

Education

Mann took her first photography class at Putney School, in Vermont, and stayed there from 1966 until 1969. According to a series of interviews, one of the main reasons why she joined the school was to be able to spend more time with her boyfriend in the darkroom. Mann was interested in art as a whole, as she received a bachelor in English and creative writing as a result of attending and graduating from Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia, in 1974. She continued her studies and earned a master's degree in writing after a year of graduating from Hollins College (Sally Mann).

Even with her initial failure to comprehend the connection she had with the world of photography, she later acknowledged her skills and her experience at Putney reflected on debut gallery "with a nude image of a classmate at Putney, and nudes, along with landscape and the exploration of adolescence, became one of the bases for subsequent bodies of work." (Sally Mann) the 1970s can largely be considered to be a period in which Mann experienced a maturing process. She initially focused on still life and then started to introduce elements involving portraits. Even though she produced a series of works involving landscapes and architecture, it was not until later in her life that she acknowledged that her calling did not involve still life (Gaogosian Gallery).

Immediate Family

Mann did not find her true passion until she the 1980s and this is reflected by the moment when she published "At Twelve: Portraits of Young Women" in 1988. She concentrated on working on the "Immediate Family Series" between 1984 and 1994, a series that focused on her three pre-adolescent children. Emmet, Jessie, and Virginia were shot at the family's summer cabin. It is probable that the fact that Mann photographed her children in Lexington, Virginia, played an important role in making her feel that she was reproducing parts and feelings from her own childhood (Auping 259).

Mann's photographs are presumably meant to discuss the complex experiences that children go through as they grow up. "At Twelve: Portraits of Young Women" is actually meant to provide society with the ability to understand children better and to focus on elements that influence them to take on certain behaviors. This work sparked some controversy as it seemed that the masses were not prepared to deal with such ideas and as some even believed that Mann got involved in discussing ideas that she had a limited understanding of. This particular series was meant to provide viewers with the reality that girls had trouble finding their personal identity as they became adolescents and as society had a general tendency to confuse them (Higonnet 404).

The work resulting from her photographing her children during the 1880s and early 1990s is displayed in the monograph she published in 1992, "Immediate Family." The series "includes sixty black -- and white photographs and an introductory text written by Mann" (Auping 259). The New Mothers photograph in the series shows Mann's two daughters, Jessia and Virginia as they stand in a seductive pose, with this picture putting across feelings related to nostalgia and a strange form of eroticism. This portrayal puts across a romantic and fleeting idea concerning childhood as the two children are shown in a summer setting standing barefoot outside and holding baby dolls in an attempt to emphasize them pretending to be mothers. This photograph is especially intriguing because most viewers seeing it are likely to express familiarity concerning how the girls must have felt, as it is common to see a child pretending to be a parent or actually having been through an experience involving you, as a child, trying to pose into a mature individual taking care of a baby.

Many might interpret New Mothers as displaying children with attitudes no different from the ones that most children put across. However, upon further analysis one is probable to understand that Mann actually wanted to add drama to the photograph by displaying her children in uncharacteristic poses and by revealing a rather immoral side of childhood. Photographic innocence is certainly not a dominant factor in Mann's photography, taking into account that she wants to put across strong messages concerning the complex nature of childhood (Suny Series in Psychoanalysis and Culture: Feminine Look: Sexuation, Spectatorship, Subversion).

The introductory text of "Immediate Family" says "Many of these pictures are intimate, some are fictions and some are fantastic, but most are of ordinary things every mother has seen -- a wet bed, a bloody nose, candy cigarettes." (Auping cited Mann, 259) What most people fail to see is the philosophical message that Mann was concerned about putting across through these photographs. Mann's photographs actually provide information regarding how parents can become better able to deal with cultural anxieties revolve around connections between children, photography, and children's understanding of what is happening around them.

The world's understanding of children

Society came to acknowledge a more modern understanding of children ever since photography was invented. Children were chosen to pose nude in photographs since the field's early ages. The fact that they feel less inclined to put across ideas related to pretending they are someone else makes children appear to be more natural. The connection between childhood and photography makes it possible for the world to be provided with unique concepts concerning ideas that are brought back to life.

People had a limited understanding of thinking and behavior seen in children up to the seventeenth century and before this time period individuals generally had the tendency to think of children as being no different from adults, as they were apparently only smaller and less experienced. "This perception reveals itself both through visual imagery from the period that portrays children, dressed like adults, participating in adult activities, as well as in the lack of cultural artifacts designed specifically for children." (Friedlander 93)

It was not until the middle of the eighteenth century that children started to be looked at from a different perspective. Photography played an important role in shaping society's image of children as photographers during the nineteenth century focused on providing the world with images of the archetypal innocent child. The masses were also inclined to consider that photography was a truthful art because it provided a true and impartial portrayal of the idea of childhood. Photography practically made it possible for the concept of Romantic childhood to appear as being perfectly normal (Friedlander 94).

Mann's effect on the world

By considering children from a perspective involving their general image throughout the nineteenth and twentieth century, most would be inclined to think about them as being innocent and almost angelic individuals. This makes it possible for someone to understand why Mann's works proved to be as controversial as they were when they first got out. Mann's photographs influenced most of the world to consider her to be the perfect example of bad motherhood. "We are uncomfortable with her scratching, wetting, charming Virginia who plays in the dirt, gets hangnails, holds weasels, wears eye makeup, collects morels, isn't afraid to get near tobacco spit, and sleeps as if dead with the ancient, wrinkled, arthritic Virginia who raised her mother." (Mavor 26) Jessie is shown biting her mother while Emmet holds two dead squirrels. All of these images sicken most viewers and generates a lot of anger.

Society feels that Mann performed an injustice to children by failing to show them as what they truly are: innocent. This woman is likely to be categorized by many as being an irresponsible mother and, in general, as a person who wants to profit as a result of the fact that the world loves extraordinary stories. Some have even went as far as to criticize Mann's work as containing elements related to pedophilia and sadism (Mavor 26).

Many are probable to think of Mann's portraits as being violent and exploitative, as the artist presumably tried to express her thoughts with no regard to the negative effects that her behavior would have on her children and on society in general. The fact that Mann had the courage to act in disagreement with moral codes that the world has promoted for the last centuries triggered serious controversy and encouraged many to get actively involved in criticizing her work and in largely condemning portrayals of children involving anything else but innocence (Mother Jones Magazine).

Many individuals have trouble accepting mothers as artists, as they are inclined to consider stereotypes when taking into account the traditional role of the mother. By doing so, they automatically think of people like Mann as having to focus on a series of choirs that have traditionally been associated with her position. By being an artist a mother would presumably be less able to perform a series of basic tasks and would thus make it impossible for her children to develop properly. "When an artist uses her children as subject matter, her motherhood is all too readily there and is thereby perverted by the child-like narcissism that we associate with the creative act." (Mavor 27)

The reality is that the social order is not ready to handle a mother trying to be an artist, especially when she uses her children with the purpose of putting across her messages. Some have even argued that Mann did not have the 'right' to photograph her children the way she did, as this damaged their image and the image of children in general, taking into account that it portrayed them as something that they were not. Mann, however, most probably wanted to address ideas that were very common, but that the world had trouble discussing. It almost seemed that she addressed a taboo topic and made it possible for the whole world to understand that people did not want to talk about concepts that were actually very ordinary. It is very difficult to get involved in a discussion concerning Mann's 'right' to photograph her children the way she did. Some lobby with regard to how the photographer's "Immediate Family" series tries to manipulate public opinion and is especially unethical.

What many interpreted as an assault on public decency was Mann's attempt to put across her thinking. Critics believe that Mann's work is damaging because of two principal reasons:

It distorts the public's understanding of children by displaying them in sensual and violent positions

It influences children to take on defiant attitudes on account of how the characters in Mann's pictures seem determined to act in disagreement with socially accepted values

Mann's intention with "Immediate Family"

Sigmund Freud's "Beyond the Pleasure Principle" actually emphasizes that society is inclined to look at things from the wrong perspective. The Austrian psychoanalyst actually shares Mann's thinking by claiming that there is much more to children's apparently innocent plays than some might believe. "We see that children repeat in their play everything that has made a great impression on them in actual life, that they thereby abreact the strength of the impression and so to speak make themselves masters of the situation. But on the other hand it is clear enough that all their play is influenced by the dominant wish of their time of life: viz. To be grown-up and to be able to do what grown-up people do." (Freud)

In addition to generating numerous controversies, Mann's "Immediate Family" also represented a turning point in history. Her work can practically be considered to stand as proof with regard to how people have a limited understanding of children's behavior and thinking because they refrain from getting involved in discussions that society tends to categorize as being immoral. The majority of individuals who supported Mann's works were women who believed that her portrayal of her children was bold because she dared to emphasize both the tenderness and the complexity of human nature. This strange form of sensibility was, for many, characteristic to the pain and the fear that a mother has when considering her children (Fletcher, Newton, Fehily, and IRIS the Women's Photography Project 11).

Mann seems to have reinvented the classical mother's efforts to raise her children by introducing elements of photography. It is practically as if Mann is no longer taking on the role of a mother and that her relationship with her children while taking these photographs was primarily focused on the photographer-subject connection. Sensuality and sexual frankness are used in "Immediate Family" with the purpose of changing people's understanding of children. It is not necessarily that she wanted to portray children as being sexual in any way, as she simply wanted to raise public awareness concerning the fact that children are not as innocent as someone might be inclined to believe. Most children are actually well-acquainted with ideas generally believed to be immoral and it is important for them to be provided with education concerning the attitudes they need to take with regard to unethical concepts.

Mann's motherhood played an important role in influencing many to feel that her photographs were not meant to damage generally accepted beliefs. "For some, her role as mother served as proof that she did not intend to exploit children for the sake of notoriety, while for others it reinforced the pity they felt towards her 'helpless art-abused children'." (Attwood, Campbell, Hunter, and Lockyer 118)