Spend a bit more time researching Sally Mann's work and reflect on why she choose photography as a medium when "reality" is something she intends to represent in a very subjective way. How does her use of this medium expand your understanding of Realism?
Photography allows the artist to capture a single moment in time and thus, reflects reality. However, the photographer has the capability to manipulate the shot through such methods as cropping, lighting, Photoshop, and dark room techniques. Because the moment is filtered through the eye and hand of the photographer, the viewer only receives a fraction of the truth. The viewer then takes this reconstructed moment and analyzes it from his or her perspective. Sally Mann illustrates this manipulation of reality by creating ethereal photographs that are open to interpretation.
ReplyDeleteIn the series on Sally’s family, the viewer sees Bohemian-like children frolicking and posing in ways only associated with fairytales. In reality, the content is nothing more than children receiving instruction from their mother to pose in a specific way. In the class video about Sally Mann, her children shared the view that, at the time, the photos did not seem magical because the kids were casually playing in a river or elsewhere, but now they can see the enchanting subjectivity in the portraits. Similarly, Sally’s landscape and dog bone photos spark interest because of their dark, hazy, and mysterious qualities. From an objective view, they reflect little else than trees and bones, but subjectively, they can bring the viewer to all different memories and interpretations.
A book titled Photography Speaks II: Seventy-Six Photographers on Their Art (1988), quotes Sally with the statement that “photographs open doors into the past but they also allow a look into the future.” To me, this quote adds insight into the link between her photographs and reality by tying the connection to the viewer’s frame of reference. Her photographs will reflect reality by referencing a piece of the past, such as the time her daughter had to keep going back to the water’s edge to wet her hair to her body. If that photo is looked upon in years long after Sally and her children have passed, future viewers will potentially see new meanings that are relatable to the reality constructed at the time.
I agree with Nicole on the function and methods of the camera. I agree that, "Sally Mann illustrates this manipulation of reality by creating ethereal photographs that are open to interpretation." This parallels Mann's work and her ability to make art ambiguous. Mann wants to create a portal into a different realm. She wants to take the ordinary, and simply make it unordinary. To Mann, art is not functioning unless it has some kind of instigation for herself. She works to what specifies her needs. She does not conform to what many contemporary artists do by catering to their audience. She takes a photo and makes it her own world.
ReplyDeleteThere was an interesting alternative behind the documentary on Sally Mann. The pictures that were being taken and being looked upon were wondrous and inquisitive. They were that, "portal into a different realm." Yet when the circumstances arise, the scene was depicted very differently in the eyes of Mann's children. What was interesting was how Mann was able to precisely mimic what she had in her mind. The word 'mimic' is obviously important, yet extremely difficult to achieve in photography.
Nicole had a nice quote on Mann's choice of medium. "Photographs open doors into the past but they also allow a look into the future." I believe that Mann successfully achieved that portal, and the only way in doing so was the photographic medium. For what she describes, there was no alternative method.
The beautiful part of photography is that there is one snap in a moment of time that is unique and will never be recreated. In my viewpoint, it gave Mann the possibility to live through another perspective; through a different life.
-Peter
I think reality is most accurately captured and represented through photography. As we discussed in class the other day, just because a photograph is manipulated does not mean that it isn't "real". For example, newspapers like The New York Times meticulously select images for their cover photos and numerous factors affect how that image is represented such as cropping, lighting, and the angle at which the photograph was taken. In regards to Sally Mann's body of work, she is mostly photographing her own children in a "natural" environment, but will direct them to pose a certain way or repeatedly make certain gestures or movements. Even though the scenarios may be staged it does not mean that it is "fake". Her photographs have somewhat of a raw feeling that could not be captured as exquisitely through any other artistic medium. If you think of it in terms of how our generation /age groups utilize photography, at parties or social events people will snap photographs of each other on their cell phones or digital cameras and alter their poses or gestures if they are not satisfied with their appearance. Just because these changes are made does not men the situation in the photograph was not real. Photographs ultimately provide the most accurate and realistic representation of reality that cannot be achieved otherwise.
ReplyDeleteThe more I think about photography as a medium, the better I understand why Sally Mann might have chosen it as a medium. The subjective quality of photography is inherent with anything that is being captured. In a picture, you are being forced to view the subject in a very specific way; the angle and perspective cannot be changed once the picture is taken, and the photography can only do so much to change the focus or cropping of the photo. Like Nicole wrote, photography captures a single moment in time and that’s how it reflects reality. Sally Mann helped me to understand that photography can either be hyper-realistic like some paintings or sculptures, or they can be done in a way that shows expression while still representing subjects from real life. That is was realism means to me. Like Peter said, “Mann wants to create a portal into a different realm. She wants to take the ordinary, and simply make it unordinary.” Mann wants to show an ambiguous aspect to the life around us, because if it was just simply a picture of her children smiling, or a snap shot of the nature around her there is not much special about it. That is the importance of photography and realism. While some things are made to look realistic and candid, it can still be carefully planned and edited to give a complete new meaning to the real life object.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Sally opened my eyes to a new way to look at photography. I have always seen it as the realest form of art, however she uses filters and lighting to show a real object in a different way. It is like you are looking through a portal to a different world.
ReplyDeleteIts especially apparent in her landscape photos, she takes everyday nature scenes and makes them look like there from a different world. It makes you truly think what is reality and what is the realist form of art because everything can be manipulated to make it look how you want.
The weirdest thing about her art is that she uses her children as the models, this was weird to me. It made me think about what is appropriate because i though those photos were over the line and inappropriate. If they were not her children that would have been considered extremely inappropriate.
While I agree with Peter that photography reflects a “single moment” in time, I do not feel that this is the case with Sally Mann. Her work is constructed, like any other art form. The fact that she constructs her photos in all ways, from the pose of her “model” children or the lighting within her landscapes, crosses the line from realism to fantasy. I feel that Mann’s work captures her intention, to create an ambiguous yet fantastic depiction, but not the most realistic.
ReplyDeleteFor me, Mann’s choice for photography is uncertain. Perhaps it is to fulfill an ironic need, as photos are thought to be captured realities and Mann’s are captured beauty and fantasy. In many ways these are “real” photos because they are living subjects. Yet as her husband reflects in the documentary “What Remains,” Mann sees the world in the view of images – constructed visions not actual depictions.
Although I may seem critical of Sally Mann, I have nothing but the deepest respect for her work. She makes ordinary life seem incredible. As she states, “The things that are the closest to you are the things that you can photograph the best. And if you aren’t going to photograph the things you love, you are not going to make good art.” I believe that’s an amazing piece of advice; to make art out of the world we experience every day is a mission every contemporary artist should value.
Sally Mann’s use of photography rather than another medium such as painting to create her rich and otherworldly works allows them to reach her audience in a more compelling fashion. The ethereal and magical landscapes and bohemian scenes she captures have the ability to transport the viewer to an alternate universe of Mann’s own creation. “Creation” is the key word because while photography is thought of as a direct reflection of life and is recognized by everyone as “real”, Sally Mann’s careful construction of her scenes makes her photographs very much a product of artistic choice. While what shows up in the photograph did actually exist for a time and is not the result of digital manipulation, the myriad of choices that were made make the shots pure construction.
ReplyDeleteIn the video, Mann and her children were recounting how difficult it was to get the shot of her daughter in the river with her hair stuck to her ribs, revealing the controlled environment Mann works in and photographs. However, looking at the finished product and how natural, haunting, and serene of a photograph it is – it is completely deceiving. While Mann chooses to utilize photography, she makes the same choices a painter would make in constructing a pleasing and engaging composition. Realism, while a technique most aesthetically reflective of life, cannot convey the whole, unbiased truth as the artist is still very much in control of what they produce, as can be seen with Sally Mann and her photographs.
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ReplyDeleteSally Mann has been an icon and idol of mine since my freshman year of high school. When I was first researching her work, I thought she was just the luckiest photojournalist alive--a woman with a hauntingly enchanting life. Now that I understand how constructed her photographs were though, my view of her work and my idea of "photography as realism" has changed.
ReplyDeleteLike Nikki pointed out, photography does have it's realistic elements. It "allows the artist to capture a single moment in time and thus, reflects reality [to a certain degree]. However, the photographer has the capability to manipulate the shot through methods such as cropping, lighting, Photoshop, and dark room techniques. Because the moment is filtered through the eye and hand of the photographer, the viewer only receives a fraction of the truth."
That being said, this idea of "framing" and "constructing" reality is true of every medium of art, and I still believe that film photography is about as close as we actually get. Sally's children really were that beautiful. Their faces we're airbrushed. Wings weren't added to their backs in photoshop. Yes, they were posed, but no, they weren't liquified, altered with a pin tool, photoshopped onto a horses body, etc. There wasn't the level of manipulation that we often find in photographs today. Whatever Sally did to "create her vision," she did by hand, and for a moment in time, it was her reality. That's what makes her work so good.
The emotions and etherial feelings projected in Mann's work are naturally, not in line with the emotions being felt by her children at the time. This is the case with almost every photograph. I believe Mann's decision to chose photography as her medium was simply the result of her father giving her a camera. "It was there" and hers for the taking. She fell in love with the process and that was that. Like Sally said in her documentary, that's what her work is all about--using what she has in front of her. She was just a bohemian earth child who used what she had around her to "make ordinary life seem incredible." So what if it's not wholly realistic? Completely candid? In a way, it still happened, and therefore, it's still realism.
When I think of Realism in the literal sense, I picture the extremely detailed still life or landscape paintings that exemplified the artists' skill as well as observational abilities, but lacked the content behind the work. After reviewing Sally Mann's work and thinking about her understanding of Realism, it reminds me of a book I read back in High School that takes on Realism in a more philosophical sense.
ReplyDeleteSome of you might have read, "The Things They Carried," by Tim O'Brien as well. The book is a work of fiction, written about a group of U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam war. Although O'Brien says that the events that are highly detailed in the book are not real, he also goes on to tell the reader that just because the events are fictional, it doesn't make them any less true because they very well could have happened to someone at some point during the war. To reinforce this argument, the reader knows that O'Brien fought in Vietnam, which makes the events in the book seem all the more real coming from someone who experienced the horrors of the war. I took the book to be entirely true based on this argument.
This is where I think O'Brien and Mann's work relate, in that their understanding of Realism is subjective, and taking their freedoms as artists, they re-create the realism that they lived at a certain point in time. For example, when Mann coaches her daughter into a specific pose and re-wets her hair over and over to capture the perfect moment that she witnessed earlier but didn't have her camera ready. Mann's photographs don't just document the specific moment, they capture the atmosphere and emotions felt by her as well. Just because she is telling her daughter how to pose or meticulously forming the composition, doesn't mean that just minutes before her daughter did the exact action perfectly just before. Mann re-creates her reality in her photographs. Like we said about interpretation about how each individual will have their own based on their life experiences, I believe that each individual lives their own reality, and as long as they are staying true to their vision of reality, they can re-create it using whatever compositional methods or model coaching or photoshoping that they please. Her pictures are ethereal and magical and other worldly, but isn't that the life we saw Mann living with her children in the video? Just because the photographs are scarred and imperfect, does that make them false representations of reality? In the very literal sense, yes. But, stepping back and thinking about the life Mann lived and how her children lived like Bohemians, I think her photographs perfectly capture the realism of the emotions and atmosphere of their lives.
When I used to think of photography I thought of snapshots of various scenes and objects that reflect exactly what the view experienced at that time. However, Sally Mann uses photographs to capture scenes that manipulate the truth but show the world according to her own truth. Mann uses photography to create mystery in her work. The mix of the real photo and altered parts, by means of digital manipulation or traditional camera techniques, is what creates an ethereal quality in her images. The association of a photograph being, as Peter said, “one snap on a moment of time that is unique and will never be recreated” is unlike other forms of art that and is what makes her work that much more meaningful and special.
ReplyDeleteOriginally I did not think of photography as a part of realism. Instead I envisioned life-like statues and detailed (sometimes boring) still life paintings of fruit and flowers. These realistic artworks took much time, great skill set, and an attention to detail. However, photography also requires a high level of skill, time, and an eye for detail. Also, Mann is capturing real life objects and scenes, however, her work mystifies, emphasizes that beauty of nature that we often take for granted, and inspires innocence and joy. Realistic artworks can have meaning past the subject of the work and create good and bad emotions in the viewer. I much prefer Mann’s form of realism, especially through the medium of photography, than more traditional paintings of still life.
The Free Dictionary online defines realism as “The representation in art or literature of objects, actions, or social conditions as they actually are, without idealization or presentation in abstract form.” It could be argued that Sally Mann does or even does not practice realism as it is defined here, depending on the amount of work put into each photograph taken.
ReplyDeleteSally Mann chose to take pictures of her children, thus she has ended up with a large body of work on this topic. One article I had found mentions how “each picture is a true collaboration between photographer and subject”. Upon watching the documentary in class, the specific photograph where she is manipulating the way her daughter’s hair falls on her ribs, and how the water in the background looks exemplifies her desire and dedication to get a good image.
She wanted to make her pictures look effortless, as if they were just a moment in time captured, not that there was as much effort put into them as some of the crafting did require. Another article I found that goes on to talk about this point mentions “the way she placed her children in dialogue with the landscape”. One more quote that I really liked talks about the way in which she captures her photos, saying, “She stalks and waits for, and sometimes stages, the moments that other parents and photographers may not prefer to see”.
Another side of Mann’s photography I found interesting, which brings it away from realism a bit, is the fact that she uses a darkroom and film as her medium. And that she enjoys the slight imperfections that this technique allows for. Another author describes her work as, “beautiful and strange, like a dream of childhood in summer”. I feel this describes a lot of the photographs of her children, as they do have a sort of dream-like quality to them, in part probably due to her usage of an 8x10 camera and the strenuous process that accompanies it.
Her using of photography to represent “realism” is a good choice. In the work she does, photography is the sensible medium, because it is an accurate imitation of the world around her, which she attempts to capture.