Focus image “Emmett, Jessie, and Virginia

Initial semiotic reading and

resulting questions

•Who are the children?

•Who is Sally Mann

•Significance of the date and

location

•Techniques employed in

creating the image

•How does this image compare

to the rest of the collection

Who is Sally Mann?

Early Life…

•Birth place

•Family background

•Education

Professional career

•Awards/acknowledgments .

•Publications

Photographic Techniques:

The Collodion process:

•Complications

•History”

•Advantages.

Interview at “Art

21 - Mann’s

personal

experiences with

the technique

The Immediate Family: Controversial?

•Significance of husband, Larry?

•How natural/staged are the images?

•Mann’s artistic intent?

•Allegations of indecency

Valerie Osbourn - American Suburb X

“ When Aperture published ‘immdiate family’’,

mom and dad sat us down, and we had a family

meeting. They asked, ‘are you going to be ok

with this?”

Similar cases of Controversial Photography:

Robert Mapplethorpe + Jock Sturges

The use of children in photographic

art: Sally Mann.

Immoral Mother?

So the Story Goes (2006)

“concerns included the sale of such

provocative works; gendered assumptions

about a mothers role as protector; and the

possibility that these pictures might prompt

inappropriate actions”

Artistic Themes:

Analysis of a number of images from the

Immediate Family collection - distinguishing

themes present in the work from visual analysis

and the effect of titles.

DeathInnocence Age

Theoretical

analysis

Structuralism/Post-

Structuralism/

Intertextuality.

•Levi - strauss

•Roland Barthes

•Daniel Chandler

•Julia Kristeva

Applied theory

Deconstruction and interpretation of

images:

•Identification of “binary oppositions” in

Mann’s work

•Inertextual interpretation of images

•Identification of themes:

•Purity - innocence - beauty - place

•Key research source - American Suburb

X “Sally Mann’s Immediate Family: The

Unafraid and Unflinching Childhood” 2006

Interpretation of

themes -

Continued application of theoretical

concepts and Titles

Barthes term of “Anchorage”

recognized in Mann’s work.

How the perception of the image is

controlled (to a degree) by the title that

accompanies it.

Mann’s desired

look/aesthetic for her

images - My most successful

pictures can show you which

ones think work the best are the

ones that just look like they

were taken with a 35 millimeter.

Additional posts:

Influences:

•American Civil War

photographers; Alexander

Gardener, Mathew Brady

•Smithonion magazine - Julia

Margaret Cameron & Eugene

Atget

The Mann Children Now -

How the children feel now

Their Careers

Attitudes to their mother

Larry Mann

The Immediate Family

Dedication

Source references

• Osbourn, Valerie 2006. SALLY MANN:Sally Mann’s Immediate Family: The

Unflinching and Unafraid Childhood (2006)

http://www.americansuburbx.com/2009/11/theory-sally-manns-immediate-famil

y.html

•Author unknown. Dog Bone Prints @ http://www.pbs

.org/art21/artists/mann/clip3.html