Monday, 17 November 2014

The Way We Live Now: Sally Mann

From the series 'Family Pictures'

From the Series 'Family Pictures'


These photographs are my favourite images of Sally’s. As I am a fan of her work, I think they are beautiful images in my opinion, however can be very controversial to others. My initial thought of the photographs are at how atmospheric they are and each one of her images captures a special ambiance. This particular project is heavily based of children and their world around them. I’m interested in this concept for my project theme, how our governed system can affect children in our world today. Her images reflects how they interact with their surroundings without facial expressions. This is something I find very interesting, given that in photography you assume this is a very reliant element in expressing the situation. However, other elements are giving away that information, such as body language and posture. Throughout these images I am reminded of a theme of ballet. The elegant poses of the children, the slightly wispy backgrounds that suggest slow, smooth movements. Even the hair in the middle image has its symbolic significance. This is highly represented in another image of Sally’s where a young girl is recreating a ballet pose on the table. Another thing that features in her photographs is how ghostly they appear to be. I feel that this effect goes well with the atmosphere of the photographs. These are all techniques i'd like to incorporate into my own project. Especially how body language, styling and the surroundings can tell a story, instead of facial expression. The one aspect missing from my images will be the facial expression, and the familiarity of a humans face can be. So I will be relying heavily on styling and body language to express my feeling. 

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