Pho·tog Friday: Sally Mann (Part III)

Welcome to Pho·tog Friday!

Hood, Michelle, Sally Mann, 2007.

In Part I of this special Pho·tog Friday Series on Sally Mann, I focused on her portrait photography which she did throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.  In Part II, we learned about her landscapes taken for the series titled Deep South as well as the images that Mann shot for her What Remains photo series.  To conclude this special Pho·tog Friday Series on Sally Mann, we're going to check out the bodies of work published within Mann's seventh and eighth books: Proud Flesh and The Flesh and The Spirit.

In 2009, Mann released her seventh book, Proud Flesh.  The series Proud Flesh is was started in 2003 and the content of these images centers around her husband's battle with muscular dystrophy, Larry Mann.  Given the nature of this photography series, the viewer is allowed to take a peak into an intimate part of Mann's life.  I would argue that this photo series is not only about the struggle her husband endures with this disease but it also studies the connection between husband and wife.  The photographs that Mann took of her husband for this series are nude; a practice typically done by male photographers when shooting their wives or lovers.  The nude portraits of Mann's husband certainly do not objectify him in any manner.  These images convey a strong sense of trust between the subject and the photographer:

Mann, Sally, Proud Flesh, 2003 - 2009.

Mann, Sally, Proud Flesh, 2003 - 2009.

Mann, Sally, Proud Flesh, 2003 - 2009.

Mann, Sally, Proud Flesh, 2003 - 2009.

Mann, Sally, Proud Flesh, 2003 - 2009.

In 2010, Mann simultaneously released her eighth book, The Flesh and the Spirit and held a show at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Virginia.  What is interesting about this body of work is that the photographs are from different periods throughout Mann's professional photography career.  Some of the silver-gelatin prints which Mann made in the late 1970s are included along with some Polaroid images taken of still lifes. There are also color photographs of her children, southern landscapes, self-portraits and photographs of her husband from the Proud Flesh series.

Mann, Sally, Untitled, 1978.

Mann, Sally, Untitled, 1978 - 1980.

Mann, Sally, Untitled, 1983.

Mann, Sally, Untitled, 1983.

Mann, Sally, Water Play, 1990 - 1991.

Mann, Sally, Bloody Noes from the series Family Color, 1991.

Mann, Sally, Untitled #4, Antietam from the What Remains series, 2001.

Mann, Sally, Emmett #3 from the series What Remains, 2004.

Mann, Sally, David from the series Proud Flesh, 2005.

Mann, Sally, Self Portraits: Ambrotypes, 2006 - 2007.

Mann, Sally, Self-Portrait: Ambrotypes, 2006 - 2007.

This book functions very much like a retrospective of Mann's photography work.  Within this publication, the viewer has the chance to not only see photographs which were never published before but to also see the different methods of capturing an image Mann has used over the years: color negatives, Polaroid film, silver-gelatin prints and ambrotypes created by the wet-plate process.  Mann's self-portraits included in The Flesh and the Spirit are all ambrotypes. 

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01. "Sally Mann." Sally Mann. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Oct. 2013.

02. "Sally Mann." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Oct. 2013. Web. 18 Oct. 2013.

03. Wright, C.D. "Proud Flesh: Photographs by Sally Mann." Aperture Foundation. N.p., 2010. Web. 31 Oct. 2013.
04. Ravenal, John. "The Flesh and The Spirit: Photographs by Sally Mann." Aperture Foundation. N.p., 2010. Web. 31 Oct. 2013.
05. "Pictures -- "Sally Mann: The Flesh and the Spirit"" - Dailypress.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Oct. 2013.
06. Laster, Paul. "Sally Mann’s Corporeal Body of Work." Flavorwire. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Oct. 2013.

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