Translator : Dr. Wattana K
A soft sunlight at the end of one muggy summer day in the State of Virginia fell on Sally and her three children while they were taking photographs using a 5×7 camera. The children were playing and growing up naturally without any worries. That was what Sally wanted to record in her photographs.
Candy Cigarette from Immediate Family (1989)
The set of photographs called Immediate Family created huge admiration, criticism and success to the artist: Sally Mann. This work was first exhibited in 1990. Some people commented that it was a commercial piece preyed on nakedness and youth of the three children. The photographs of three naked children living their lives in many bodily movements. Emmett, aged 12, swam in a stream by their ranch. Jessie, 7, acted like a ballerina on the porch. Those photographs took both comments and criticisms to the mother who took the photographs. Some people called the exhibition Child Pornography.
The Last Time Emmett Modeled Nude (1987)
For Sally Mann, whose simple childhood on the very same farm her family lived, nakedness on the private place was considered a common behavior. Sally started her photography at the age of 16 with her father’s 5×7 camera. Her very first work exhibited in her gallery was the work of architecture. She took her family portraits on a daily basis without much thought. One day, she took a photograph of Jessie’s face swollen due to the insect stinging. That was the first moment she got a glimpse of the importance and possibility to create the work of art through her children’s photographs. It was the time she saw something beyond their innocence, their wound. There were some hidden stories and nature that were darker. From then on, Sally carefully captured the vulnerable times of her children. She even set up some backgrounds to create more interest in the photographs. However, over Emmett’s car accident in 1987, Sally realized that only the reality of a child vulnerability was enough.
“ I don’t remember the things that other people remember from their childhood. Sometimes I think the only memories I have are those that I’ve created around photographs of me as a child. Maybe I’m creating my own life. I distrust any memories I do have. They may be fiction, too. ”
The children did not have any problems for their nude photographs to be exhibited and published as art pieces. Sally sent her children to a phychiatrist to check for any abnormality and the result just came out fine. All the three children understood both advantages and disadvantages following their naked photographs. The children trusted their family. Before the distribution of the photographs, Sally talked openly with her children and let them choose their own forbidden photos. They chose ‘not cool’ photos because they thought they were more shameful than their naked photos. Sally intended wholeheartedly to take those photos until it started to hurt her family. She intentionally did not let it be like that and fought all the comments straightly. A Virginia photo was displayed with an article published on The Wall Street Journal in 1991. A black stripe with the phrase ‘moral black stripe’ was put over the child’s fragile parts of the body. That very much upset Sally and she responded, “This is like raping, not only to the photo, but to Virginia and her innocence.” For Sally Mann, child purity and nature deserved to be regarded as the work of art.
Vinland (1992)
reference:
Sally Mann
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/19/magazine/the-disturbing-photography-of-sally-mann.html
