First, I just have to say that that was a beautiful film about an inspiring woman. It really touched me emotionally, more than I would have expected. The death series was riveting. It was very interesting watching her explore the remains at the body farm—she had such a fascination for the aesthetics of the decaying corpses, rather then disgust or fear. I honestly felt a bit uneasy seeing the rotting faces; I guess it would have to do with my discomfort at the thought of death in general. I’m normally not the squeamish type, I’ve taken enough science and anatomy classes, but this just affected me differently. I did appreciate her take on death and dying and wish I could bring myself to that frame of mind. I think I have a fear of the people I love dying and leaving me so this makes it hard to accept the reality of death.
As with these dead subjects, Sally Mann obviously has an intimate relationship with all of her subjects, be it family or farm. She shoots what and who she knows. I think that one would have to have this kind of relationship in order to fully capture the emotion or feeling or reason behind the shooting. A photographer can’t just go in and start shooting someone’s family and expect to get what Sally has gotten from her own family. She knows the faces they make, the subtle nuances in their moods, and the limits that they might have when she’s shooting. An outsider wouldn’t be able to get these same personal portraits or “life moments.” As she said, she never has to leave her home to find subjects- she has everything she needs to make art happen surrounding her. Her children, the farm landscape, her husband, even her dead dog are constant sources of inspiration for her. I think that this is only natural, we are comfortable at home and with our family and with what we see everyday.
I think it would be great to be able to work within this physical comfort zone, but try and push the limits of maybe what makes others feel comfortable. I would love to photograph the people around me, I really enjoy shooting people. The joy they get from seeing their photos is completely satisfying. I think the hard part of intimately shooting the people around me would be that I tend to get very emotional. I know I definitely could not have photographed a pet that had passed away, no matter how far I removed myself from the situation in my head. I prefer to stick to the happy times. I know that can be denial, but I guess I haven’t really had the opportunity to deal with photographing during any difficult times. I know I could be an outsider and photograph other peoples’ good and bad times, but it would definitely be harder if it was my own life. Speaking of happy times, I have tried to take as many photos of my son since he was born, documenting each tiny finger and toe and his beautiful eyes and chubby legs, etc. He’s three now and really isn’t the biggest fan of my camera. I have a friend who asked me to take photos of her and her husband when she was pregnant, so I took that on nervously. I just wanted the photos to be really good, something they would enjoy (and not have to ask someone else to take over). So I did it and I think the end results came out nicely. I was happy to be a part of this very intimate moment of theirs and know that they trusted me enough to try and capture their love. It’s funny I only took some photographs of myself when I was pregnant about a week before I gave birth—I was just too busy (that’s my excuse) to do more. I really regret that now and wish I had taken the time to do more photos. The same couple had me do their Christmas photos and family photos, so I’m getting to experience more formal situations and I still get to be a part of their special family moments. It really makes me feel like an insider in their family.
Although getting the opportunity to photograph those around you might be great, there may be sacrifices that would have to be made. One might be to have to kind of shut yourself off emotionally from your subject so as not to get sidetracked or distracted from what you are ultimately trying to do. Like I said previously, it would be difficult for me to shoot my family during a difficult time; I would definitely need to remove myself emotionally in order to carry that out. I suppose that’s like Sally dealing with her husband’s illness—she keeps on shooting him and living their seemingly unchanging life together, all the while forgetting, or trying to anyway, that they are both living with his impending demise. When she stops to think about it, she remembers that there is pain. Another sacrifice might be that trying to intimately photograph those around you might make you become more annoying and pest-like to them and might make you learn things about them that you didn’t want to know. Sally’s family was very patient with her photo shoots and requests, although I guess they all had grown with her as a photographer and to them this was just how mom was. This would definitely be helpful when trying to truly capture your subjects.
In the future I would love to continue documenting lives, be they ones I am intimate with or others that I am far removed from, something along the lines of portraiture or photojournalism. I like seeing people in scenes that are natural and documenting what is happening now. But, conversely, I also like setting up scenes and having people pose and getting them at their finest. Again, I was really inspired by Sally’s life and works. She is someone I could see myself emulating—her methods, subjects, farm, everything. :)
