Review Any Piece of Art
Sally Mann, Body Farm, SallyMann.com
Grotesque, morbid, and insensitive are the first words that ran through your mind when looking at Sally Mann’s Body Farm collection. The series of photographs are taken at a Body Farm in Tennessee and show dead body after dead body decomposing into the earth. After your first gut reaction, something changes. The photographs keep you looking, making you feel something. The Body Farm collection is a success for Sally Mann because it provokes thoughts by exploring a deep theme of death and balances beauty with exceptional photographic techniques.
The longer you look at these photographs, the better they get. Art that keeps you interested for longer than a blink of an eye and starts provoking ideas is art worth talking about. Mann does exactly this. By picking a controversy subject, she has already begun the buzz. She moves past the shock factor that comes with the topic of death and dead bodies by delicately photographing her subjects. The audience can tell Mann appreciated what she was photographing and treated the deceased with respect. You can tell she accomplished this by protecting the identity of the body. She focused more on the body and skin rather than the face. She turned a corpse into an abstract photograph. Only one picture shows the face but in the black and white version, there is a veil over the features elegantly hiding the identity. At a lecture with Mann at DePaul University, Mann explains how she accomplished this beautiful picture. The thin blurred veil over that face was actually moving maggots eating the skin away. In the colored version, the face is beyond grotesque and you cringe when looking at it. Mann’s excellent technique and desire for a beautifully honest shots blended the reality and turned it into a piece of art that masks horror but brings attention the message she wanted to convey.
Mann’s technique surpasses most photographers of this time. She shoots using a technique that goes back to the 1800’s called collodion wet plate with an antique view camera. It takes years to master and very few people use this method anymore. Mann has mastered this art and continues to excel one series after another. Beyond her technical skills, Mann has an eye that can produce some of the most artistically interesting photographs. Many of her compositions in this series are simple but striking. She lets the organic shape of the body create the interest of the photograph. The vantage points differ from far away to up close, above the bodies, and next to. Mann explored every angle of her subjects to produce the best shots possible. Mann’s signature style when developing her photographs is clearly apparent in this series. Noticeably, she works with mistakes made in developing rather than fighting them for a perfect photograph. The technique produces a more abstract feel. This works particularly well with the sensitive subject matter. In one specific image, Mann leaves a foggy white hue over the entire photograph of a normally static image. On the upper left hand corner fingerprints inhabit the image. The photograph takes on an eerie, mysterious tone that would have been lacking if it weren’t for her unique developing techniques.
The art speaks for itself. With deep thoughts of death provoking thoughs and a uniquely perfect technique, Sally Mann’s Body Farm is a highly successful collection. Mann speaks eloquently about her work and her fascination with death but you don’t have to hear her speak to understand the beautiful photographs she produces. Her old-style technique and abstract style are just icing on the cake for another hit in Sally Mann’s body of work.
Melissa Garcia Reviews 