Original subtitles

One of the lessons that young artists can draw from my

creative journey is that you shoot best what is close to you.

And if you don't like what you photograph, then your work will not turn out good.

I have unlimited respect for people who travel the world for the sake of creativity

and take pictures of beautiful Indians against the backdrop of linen fabrics,

but the basis of my creativity has always been an attempt to find beauty in the everyday and ordinary.

It never crossed my mind to leave the house to be creative.

WHAT REMAINS

Mann family estate Lexington, Virginia

- Hi baby! Place!

- Place! Good dog!

- Oh, nice! Just look at the sun!

When I was about six

my father gave me the book Art Everywhere.

Sally Mann, photographer

It was one of those children's books, you know, where they tell you to crawl under the

tablecloth on the dining room table looking for interestingly shaped crumbs, and so on,

just to learn to appreciate the simple things that surround us every day.

And you know, I probably took it to heart,

because I still remember this book, and everything that was

said in it is still as close to me as it was in childhood.

- This is no portrait! This is a photo of my estate!

As always...

- Dear, go with her a little on the road,

about five feet ahead...

People often ask if I don't mind being filmed all the time?

Larry Mann, husband

You know, Sally always had a camera in

her hands, almost from the moment we met.

And now I'm so used to the fact that this is her way of seeing the world,

that when we walk, or go somewhere together,

I guess from her face when she sees the frame.

I can see it in her face...

That's how her mind works...

Tell her to prick up her ears!

This is how she sees the world - in pictures.

- There is! Let me get closer.

- What distinguishes mom, in my opinion, is that she can take

a simple thing that I consider ordinary and uninteresting,

Virginia Mann, daughter

and take a picture where I can see the inner beauty of this thing.

...I want to shoot you against the backdrop of the mountain...

So we'll have to step back a bit...

She just sees something and knows:

it's not just that, it's something special.

Emmett Mann, son

- Hey, over here! Like this!

Ah, once again, she turned her head.

She sees what she doesn't want to forget.

- There is! Excellent, well done!

William Carlos Williams, one of my favorite

poets, had the concept of "one's own place".

In his work, this is a separate concept.

And I agree with him.

"My place" consists of two parts:

my family and my estate.

In them I find solace when I'm having a hard time

and, of course, inspiration for everything I do.

The name Sally Mann became familiar to an international audience in 1992.

After the publication of a series of children's photographs "Closest relatives".

Summer house of the Mann family, 1990

I didn't try to manipulate anyone at all.

It was just an emotional reaction to things that were important to me.

One day, Jessie came home with a wasp sting on her face,

it was huge, like a bruise, as if she had been beaten.

Before that, I always thought of children

as material for exclusively family "photos".

But at that moment I was amazed:

right there, in front of my eyes, was

the finished painting, the real painting.

And I just put it against the wall and took a picture.

That's when it all started, with this

realization that here, right under my nose,

there is material for real creativity, which I did not suspect.

I began to see differently.

...Virginia!

Go down another step... Slowly...

Yes, that's it... Wait a second.

With your right hand, this one,

move your hair so that it is around you.

Yes, yes, great! Good girl!

I realized that my children, each of them, -

very unusual individuals.

When I took the first ten shots, I

was aware that they were good shots,

and many take good pictures, but they are not bought,

and don't get featured on the cover of The New York Times...

But I knew that these were good, strong

shots that had not been taken before.

A selection of her photographs was released as a book that became an international bestseller.

Her prints skyrocketed in value, and Time magazine named her "America's Best Photographer."

At the same time that I was working on this series, in

society, especially in religious and far right circles,

the next wave of fight against a child pornography rose.

And when it collapsed, my work became one of the victims of this hysteria.

CAPTION: Sally Mann's photos stir society

This controversy undoubtedly played

a role in drawing attention to my work.

HEADLINES: Can child porn be art? Art or abomination?

As a result, my work was seen by a much larger number of people.

I don't know... How to understand why people buy my prints,

because of scandalous fame, or simply because they see something in them,

what do they like?

I like to think that for the second reason...

But be that as it may, they were well bought.

I don't know, I have rather mixed feelings about that time...

And if I had the opportunity to somehow survive this period again,

I don't want to be famous again like this, "from the back door."

It helped me get through, but I feel like decent

work should always get through, one way or another.

In any series of works, there comes a period when you reach a

certain point, after which everything goes as if automatically,

and each shot is consistently good, and then you realize

that with each photo you raise the bar for yourself...

And if you take a very good photo, then the next one should be even better.

Your creative path should only go up...

and nothing is more dangerous to good works,

than the good work done in the past.

All these good photos that were taken with such ease suddenly

begin to seem unattainable, and further creativity is impossible.

- What's the funniest thing, until you set up the camera, you won't see the picture...

You need to somehow introduce the camera into this environment...

And then, I don't know how, the photograph will reveal itself... Extremely strange.

- Mmmm... Beauty!..

I get asked all the time why kids don't pose

anymore, but nothing like that happened...

It's just that we've been taking these pictures for ten years.

And at some point everyone got tired of repeating the same thing.

And I realized that I want to shoot landscapes.

I somehow managed to move quite smoothly from children to landscapes,

the children in the pictures were getting smaller and smaller,

until I started shooting landscapes with tiny figures of children somewhere in the corner...

And pretty soon the landscapes took the main place.

There is magic in nature. The only question is, will I be able to "catch" him.

I tried to convey this childish feeling of nature

like something moist, cozy, like a mother's womb.

When I was little, I made caves for myself in the honeysuckle bushes,

and practically lived in them ... I was a real child of nature.

And these are the moments from childhood, when it's

hot outside, and I'm sitting in my honeysuckle cave,

That's what I was looking for in my landscapes.

I was convinced that when I exhibited these

landscapes, I would be blown to smithereens.

Because they are so unrestrainedly romantic and sentimental...

This is one of the hallmarks of artists from the south:

love for the earth, for nature, patriarchy,

connection with the past, susceptibility to myths...

But the main thing that distinguishes us southerners, in my opinion,

it is our willingness to experiment with portions of romanticism

that are sure to prove fatal to other postmodern artists.

That's why I was afraid of being laughed at in New York

but it turned out quite differently... Reviews of these works were enthusiastic.

Maybe people are just tired of some children,

or maybe they were pleased with the fact that I can shoot something else...

Since high school, I have wanted to do art.

I owe this to my parents, who have

always encouraged any creativity.

My father worked as a village doctor but his

real passion was these strange sculptures of his.

He did all sorts of weird things.

For example, I somehow found a cedar trunk

with three protruding branches, and each of

them had a kind of thickening at the end...

And so, he cut a little here, smoothed a little there,

and it turned out very similar to the torso of a man.

With three protruding phalluses...

His garden was open to the public and he put this

sculpture there in the far corner, out of sight,

imagine, all these women in white gloves, with hairstyles, were walking there...

When mom found out it was a blast, it's a park,

it's available to the entire state of Virginia,

And there was this thing...

He called it Tailor's Triple Case, after a novel by Philip Roth.

The local people in our small Virginia town have

always considered our family highly unusual.

My parents didn't really stick to the "middle class" lifestyle that

is usually considered the norm. I think that's the whole point.

We didn't have a TV, we didn't belong

to a social club, we didn't go to church,

and as a result, we were different, despite our

best efforts to look like an ordinary family.

My parents had a hard time with me...

No, I certainly was not, as they say, "bad seed",

I just always showed self-will and stubbornness...

It's all so far away now... And I'm completely different.

In the first two years of her life, she refused to wear clothes at all.

Elizabeth Munger, Sally's mother

I refused to take her with me to the city until she was dressed,

and then she said that she did not want to go to the city at all.

She did not want to make concessions for the sake of a trip to the city.

She liked being naked.

She had fits of anger

then she held her breath until she turned blue.

So she showed us her anger,

if something was not as she wanted.

My personality was greatly influenced by my father's upbringing,

who did not tolerate and did not allow disappointment.

Whatever we did, the result had to be absolutely flawless.

It was an unspoken demand, he did not voice it, but

he himself demonstrated this by his own example.

- It seems to me that dad has always been

so refined, so well-mannered, correct...

- Quiet... - And quiet...

And it was impossible to imagine all his oddities,

his peculiarities, unusual traits of character...

And it always seemed like he was thinking about something extremely important.

- Truth? Yes, I always thought so.

And that's what he used to scare us when we were kids.

- Truth? - Yeah...

He seemed so far away...

But it normal.

I got through it, I'm strong.

- How is she? - Well very well...

...Larry, grab some hay, please. - Good.

I met Larry when I was 18,

bennington freshman,

came home for the Christmas holidays to her boyfriend, best friend Larry.

'69 flood almost leveled our house

and in the meantime brought just a huge stone

five or six feet from the front door, just gigantic.

Dad needed help cleaning it up, so he

called my then-boyfriend, Sea Turner,

and asked if anyone could help.

And Xi replied that he knew just the right person.

And so he brought Larry, and when Si

and his father tried to move the stone,

he said, "Come on, let me"...

And he bent down and picked up this stone himself, put it on his

back, carried it to the door of the house and put it in its place,

and then he turned and looked at them as if it cost him nothing.

And Sea Turner told me that at that moment he

realized that I would become the wife of Larry Mann.

It was love at first sight.

Of course, 33 years later, it's hard to imagine, but that's how it was.

Because we met at Christmas

and already by the new year we firmly decided that we would get married.

We had a great time together.

We just decided everything from the beginning:

first we wanted to travel a bit, then go back home to Lexington.

He also had an artistic beginning, he was engaged in sculpture.

But then the question arose of who could make money with art, and

it turned out to be me, not as an artist, but as a photographer.

I was doing the usual orders: shook hands and give me a check.

Group shots of the swim team and all that...

And Larry studied law, passed the exam

three years later, and became a lawyer.

In general, we looked at things the same way,

we had similar aesthetic and worldly views,

which is why I think we succeeded.

- Not cold?

- Not yet. - Good.

- What will be the frame? — Terribly complicated, it's dark in here...

- I want to make sure that I can shoot with this lens...

I filmed Larry from the beginning.

"Put your foot there for a second..."

“Ahaa, I see something odd…” “Understood…”

In this series, which for now I call "Matrimonial Fidelity"

for myself, I try to paint a kind of portrait of marriage.

You know, everything from the most mundane

things, gardening, clipping dogs' claws,

to the soul, sex... In general, everything.

Everything we do in life together.

How do you actually cut your nails? - Yes, just like that.

You look kinda weird...

Can you turn around a little...

Are you posing for the first time?

And how are you not bored yet?

- Oh, I forgot, I need to clean the hay there...

Larry is just great, you know, he is always very positive.

Just imagine how much he must trust me as an artist

because he must believe that I can take good enough

pictures to justify his participation in this form.

"Bella, your way out..."

Let's go to the original...

Let everyone admire your seven hundred dollar scar.

“That's right, stop… Good girl…”

- I can hold her.

This picture is not as simple as I thought...

- Almost done...

I'll quickly take the fat...

- So, Bella, turn around a little...

- Well done!

So good...

You cut, I shoot.

Wonderful. She is great!

Yes, a real star!

You are our star, dear! .. It's a pity, the shutter speed is half a second, you will be all blurry...

Yes, and you are well done, a good model, a good one! ..

I think, with a bit of a joke, I view this

series as such an aesthetic savings investment.

I know the pictures are taken and I know they are good.

Maybe they'll never see the light, maybe after I stretch my legs, but I'm very

pleased and calm to know that they're lying there in a box in a dark room.

I hope she doesn't get sick from the pork fat...

And that will be interesting.

Well, here's another good picture...

I thought about her for a long time.

I've been thinking about her ever since you grilled hot dogs or something in the summer,

and wiped his hand on his pant leg... - And the dog came up?

- And the dog came up and began to lick...

“It only remained to add this scar…

I also want to film how you shave with this picture...

You know, I'm getting fucking sick of filming...

Well, sooner or later...

You will be sealed from cradle to grave, dear...

- You didn't succeed with the cradle...

But damn close! - Close...

- I was thinking, because we have already spent about two-thirds of our lives together...

Yes, it started a long time ago...

"Yes... it's so strange...

In 1994, Larry was diagnosed with a rare, incurable form of muscular dystrophy,

gradually weakening and destroying muscle tissue.

“I myself didn't notice anything at all

until people began to ask me why I was lame?

And for some time I did not pay attention, answered, well, I don't know...

I kept telling him...

- Well, in the end, I went to the clinic when there was something like a promotion,

a complete blood count, in all respects, for 15 bucks, or something...

I took these tests and they told me, "No, something is wrong, I need to take it again."

There was something with the level of muscle enzymes...

In general, the analysis was as if I had just suffered a severe heart attack.

All my muscle mass was rapidly losing enzymes.

Therefore, the analyzes just went off scale.

- The disease develops in such a way that one half of the body is much worse than the

other, but at the same time asymmetrically, the left leg and right arm are the worst.

Muscles just atrophy...

Well, he has a lot of muscles...

So it's going to take longer than it would with the others, but...

It seems to me that I do not recognize his illness, in any way.

I don't like to delve into all this psychology,

but I just don't think about it.

You know, it's like with age, you don't seem to notice him, and then I look out the

window and see him walking, as if stumbling, dragging his leg, well, you'll see...

And I think, "Oh my God!"

It's so sudden, so unfair...

Not for us...

- Everything seems to be ready.

You will need to not move your hand for quite some time.

- It's okay, I can handle it.

I'm used to.

- We started.

He's ready to pose for me, but...

Is it fair of me to ask him?

You see, this question gnaws at me, is it fair to ask him,

just because I know he won't refuse?

As I get older, I realize that this is my legacy, and I have to ask myself,

what would I want to leave behind and how would I want people to perceive it?

It's obvious that I don't want to leave dry, meaningless pictures,

but I don't want to leave something that hurts

harm someone else.

“Do you remember, you were once going to film the three of us, but we didn't want to…”

Jesse Mann

It was terribly hot, and here you are with your camera... I was terribly angry...

And I moved back and forth so that your focus went away! ..

“I was ready to strangle you all!”

Do you remember this picture?

- I remember it was terribly hot then, under 40 somewhere...

And you kept saying, "Don't move, don't move at all!"

“You three were terrible, as soon as one did something right, the other immediately spoiled everything...

- As a child, when I saw that my mother had an idea

for a picture, it scared me a lot, I wanted to hide.

Her expression changed

when she noticed something in our classes that inspired her,

and she had to take it off by all means.

...I would like you to turn to the river

and touched my hair...

Turn towards the river and then turn around to face the camera... Yes, like this...

Children hold these pictures with the strength

of their characters, their unusual individuality,

human power.

I said "Jesse, please put out your hand with the cigarette candy, right here,

and look at me with such an expression of universal detachment"...

And she did it! Easy!

I didn't even have to show it, she knew what I meant.

And now other people are filming her because she has this power...

- Great, Jesse.

- I like to pose, I always did

it, and I think I'm good at it...

I would say, I rather feel embarrassed in front of such... like, soap dishes? ..

I don't know, I've never filmed myself...

I feel embarrassed in pictures like this.

As for everything else, absolutely not.

You know, every time photographers tell me that they want to shoot me,

I answer, "Oh, I'll be happy to pose for you!" I need it like a drug...

But I love it.

Do you remember this one? With Lucy Turner's dog, Tripod?...

- Not...

- And this is you. Here is the smudge...

I think... Ah, no, it's Emmett.

...But I don't remember this one at all… — No?..

You teach Virginia how to pray...

You went to the Episcopal church then.

It wasn't long.

- Nine years...

And you came twice.

- Is it? I think I came every Sunday...

- Yes of course...

- How many of them?.. - I don't know... A million...

...What else is this? “Well… The kids tied you up, it seems…

- Yes, our games sometimes got out of hand...

- There is another one where they tie you to a tree near the house... Which fell last year.

- With your full connivance? — Of course... It's a game.

I'm preparing another book... Coming soon.

This will be a collection of my old works, on a more varied subject matter.

This does not mean that I am unhappy with "Next of Kin", it's

just that there are other, more tender, dear pictures to me,

which have not been published before.

Maybe you really shouldn't make this book, but let them do it...

Because this is actually their legacy, their work...

Ahassah wants to put on a traveling exhibition of family photographs,

and these photos always provoke questions,

this is their main advantage...

But we have already answered all these questions so many times, and again...

You get tired just thinking about it.

- And everyone is very fond of being interested in, "And who did he grow up with?",

and again I have to say

as if our lives, our decisions, are being judged in some way...

Like, "Well, what about the kids after all this?"

- Questions arise constantly, without this it never happens...

It was naive of me to think otherwise from the very beginning.

“Besides, it seems to me that only now you are truly establishing

yourself as an artist who has works not only about family,

and probably shouldn't start this thread again...

- Exactly. I just have to go and shoot more.

It's time to start making art.

- Don't you think that I filmed mine? .. - No...

“A fifty-two-year-old loser filming her...

December 8, 2000

“Our next story is unusual in itself, and

our crew managed to film a large part of it.

After a tense chase and shootout in the woods,

the police carry out the body of the suspect.

It happened today in Rockbridge County, according to the

police, it all started with the theft of a patrol car,

when the police came to serve him the warrant."

- I was at home when the sheriff called and said, "There is

a fugitive on your land and you need to leave the house."

And just then we saw how it fits. Directly to us.

I think he fired first, so it seemed to me.

They fired back at him and wounded him in the thigh.

I think he fell... He put a gun to his head and shot himself.

When it was all over, the place was wrapped with

this yellow tape, and I went there and began to look,

there were footprints on the ground where he lay for several minutes until he was taken away...

And where his head lay there was a small pool of blood,

strangely, it was very dark, almost like chocolate.

And I dipped my finger into her like

she had, I don't know, enchanted me

and it began to decrease, it began to gradually soak into the ground.

It was amazing, I recoiled when I saw how the

earth seemed to take a sip of this blood...

I kept going there for a while,

as if putting in order the place of his death... and filming.

And with that, a whole new project began.

The death of the criminal had a strong influence

on my perception of the earth and nature.

I began to ask myself, what happens to the

land on which a huge number of people die?

Civil War battle site Cold Harbor, Virginia

The earth does not care where a person died, its concern

is to remove everything superfluous and renew itself.

Only an artist who comes later and writes, draws, photographs,

makes this land a place of power and creates a memory of death.

Because the earth cannot remember itself, but the artist can.

When I take these pictures, I cover a

glass plate with a solution of collodion,

that looks like syrup...

It is curious that collodion was used

during the civil war as a hemostatic agent.

Wet collodion is a very fascinating

process, very contemplative, self-absorbed.

It contains a sense of the weight of what is happening.

I love collodion shots.

They are very idiosyncratic. You can't shoot like that by any other means.

All those little flaws, specks of dust on the glass, you see...

They all show up in the picture, which is what I like.

It's an element of chance...

All my mistakes, they end up in the right place...

The same process was used by Brady

during the war, and Fenton, and Gardner...

They had antediluvian mobile

laboratories, helpers, mule-drawn carts,

And they were getting such high-quality negatives...

After all, flaws are very difficult to avoid, look here...

Here are the divorces, here...

I like them...

But in the work of photographers of the 1800s, you will never see them.

All their pictures are perfect.

I fear that one day I will master this technique to perfection.

I drive with my mobile darkroom in the car to nature,

And everything that can go wrong, must go wrong...

Blackout falls like a house of cards on all my solutions

and the negatives come out with some beautiful oddities...

The moment I cover the record, tractors

drive past, kicking up a cloud of dust,

and it's a great picture.

I have to admit, it sometimes frustrates me that

a lot of my work depends on technical errors.

I don't intentionally handle negatives this way,

but I don't throw them away as waste either.

In the past, I took pictures many times,

who were magically transformed by someone's hand,

not my own, and they

got better than that.

I like these extraneous interventions.

Proust once wrote

that for the job he prayed for an "angel of certainty."

I pray the angel of uncertainty descend on my record.

“Look how fast it is!”

What's in her teeth?

- Larry, it's a chicken! .. - Oh, no...

She's awfully proud of herself...

The vultures are already here...

And they will be hunted!

Could be a great photo...

- Well, take it off... - They will not stand still...

Here's a young lady!

This is how we spend our days...

True, if we kept a diary of every minute of our days...

So, let's start: three hours fiddling with dogs,

two and a half - looked out the window...

If you break it down into minutes, then everything will be so...

We can watch like this for hours, if you count...

How to stay here?

- She's really beautiful...

Just look...

She was a greyhound, the

second fastest animal in the world,

and this bone supported her...

Even with a broken leg, she just flew.

Here is the claw...

Little phalanges...

This leg once darted across the farm at lightning speed.

There is a tiny piece of wool left here, I want it to turn out...

And a little more dust wouldn't hurt.

Like this.

This project was born when my dog ​​Eva died, and I could

not find the strength to part with her body so immediately.

Because her essence was still in her body,

it had a soul.

I guess I wanted to understand how

long her soul will continue to live...

Eighteen months of decay...

It was so unexpected...

This little claw carries such a

powerful emotional charge...

She was a big dog and only a small claw remained

but it's enough to make my heart beat faster.

This interest in death...

It must be hereditary, because my father was fascinated by it.

He dealt with this topic for a very long

time, the topic of the iconography of death,

how in different cultures, from prehistoric times, they imagined death.

He studied everything from cave paintings to medieval tombstones,

Rembrandt's Anatomy Lesson...

We grew up with this, death was always somewhere nearby, in the house...

Boxerwood Gardens, Sally's childhood home

Are you here. And at this time...

Just look how it has grown!

Just monstrous... Like from Blenham Gardens...

Daddy planted it all when I was very little

all the trees in this area, they were small, just seedlings.

There were rare varieties among them, he ordered them,

I don't know, from Hong Kong, and they were just tiny.

And now, look...

He would be delighted if he saw.

- Did you find a box with my beautiful masterpieces?

Come on, brave woman!

Oh, Khalifa! My first Arabian horse!

Karen Bailey, family friend

This is how I imagine heaven to this day...

Wow! 1963...

- Not bad! .. - You liked to work with color...

- How touching... - Very.

You were the light in his eyes...

“Your insides, dad.

The ghost of the dead.

- Hmm... - Is this some kind of X-ray beam, or something...

Your insides, dad...

Very strange.

It's scary to find things like this...

But really, he was one of the most

difficult people to communicate with?

- Partly...

- He was unusual... - Incredible...

- A very inquisitive mind...

He rarely advertised his education and versatility...

- You will have something to remember.

- I must say, he scared us a lot,

partly because it was like that in the 50s, you know, don't get your daddy and all that...

But also because of his character.

Hunter Moring, family friend

He had some strange aura, until the very day of his death.

I remember when he was sick and did not leave the office,

All morning I mustered up the courage to go to him and tell him that I love him.

And so I approached him quietly, quietly, and said "Dad"...

He started up, "What?"

And I said, "I love you"...

And he said, "Enough is enough..."

Enough for you, dear!

So it was an important moment in our relationship,

you know that I'm dying, and I know that I'm dying,

and you need to say something important, but it turns out "Well, enough, enough..."

"You can do it, dear!"

That's it!..

But I said, God knows, I really said it! ..

"I love you dad!"

It's one thing when you consider bodily

decay with the body of a dog as an example,

but it seemed to me that it was important to study the issue with people as well.

Because otherwise I would hardly have been able to

give people enough emotional impetus for reflection.

University of Tennessee Forensic Science Field

I got access to the medical examiner's site, where they

study corpses to better understand the decomposition process.

These bodies are simply left there to decompose, out in the open.

...I really like the mummified skin, it's amazing...

Dr. Richard Gentz, expert anthropologist

Like cloth, or water...

It seems so organic, so alive.

All these folds,

transitions, she is alive...

Another small...

They seem small.

But what a beautiful color,

look what a sparkling orange! ..

Fabulous!

Such an unexpected color!

- But, as you can see, quite fresh...

Looks like young...

Fine hair.

I think these pictures of the bodies will be the focal point of this series about death.

They seem to draw a line under all this research.

It was a study from two sides, what happens

to the landscape when death comes there,

and what happens to those who die there.

It is difficult to realize that after death you no longer exist.

Your body is just a vessel

that contains your true essence

and after death, only he, meaningless, remains.

It seems to me that people who leave all these posthumous demands, like send

me to sail on the Ganges, or pour me into plastic at a plant in Michigan...

I think it's pretty stupid.

They simply refuse to admit that they eventually lost control.

That they no longer have any influence on the world.

And I don't care what they do to me.

Leave me to hawks and foxes.

I want to become fertilizer for the pecan tree.

There are not so many of me, but it will be enough to support some process.

“Look, gray hair. - Oh, well, you...

For an old man, your hair is nothing...

- And thanks for that.

- I almost fell asleep! You always fall asleep...

Such a sun...

- And someone ruffles your hair, it's so nice...

These pictures of death raise serious questions

and they can upset many.

I am not so surprised by such a reaction, as I was

surprised by the reaction to photographs of children.

I guess it's all down to the way

I serve it, if I do it with dignity

as befits an important intellectual and creative

presentation, people will understand it.

This is my creative reflection, reflection.

It seems to me that death is more natural for

me and not as terrible as for most people.

Partly due to Larry's illness,

which once again reminded our family of mortality.

But also because I saw my father die.

And he faced death fearlessly...

This made a deep impression.

We were all together...

And a month before he knew he was going to die

and he behaved quite ordinary,

calmly, there was no fear in him.

I remember it very much.

His fearlessness was

completely unshakable.

In my eyes.

Autumn 2002

For September 2003 at the Pace Gallery in New York

a large exhibition of Sally's photographs of death was planned.

This project, photographs about death, turns out to be very interesting...

It is gaining real weight, growing, I see how

it turns into something with great potential.

I just need to figure out how to complete it...

It seems to me that it would be a mistake to approach

the theme of death, showing it as the final point.

I need to find some positive, life-affirming note to

end with, and I'm not entirely sure what it is yet.

Emmett, don't scare them!

Hold like this! Here!..

This is how chickens are kept!

“Your eyes are so deep!”

“Because they kicked me in this one…”

- Let's not talk about it.

- You were a real test for the mother... - I know, I know...

Take your head back... Listen to me.

I take these pictures of children...

I focus so that their faces are very large.

- Move closer.

“If I lower my face, it won't work.

- In what sense? “Well, now the sun is casting a shadow over my face…

- Yes, truth!..

It's rare to get to spend some time

one and a half to two hours, with each of the children separately,

so that nothing gets in the way.

And it's so natural to work with them again.

- Move a little...

To the left, probably... Turn your head a little...

Wonderful.

Almost everything is ready.

Are you ready? The exposure will be about three minutes...

At least three.

- Okay.

“Can you look cute for three minutes in a row?”

- What do you think?

...Ready? Open your eyes.

Sweet, calm, serene, kind expression.

And a little mysterious.

One two Three.

There is something real, weighty, and at the same time elusive in these portraits.

What amazes me most is how similar they are,

how similar the features of their faces are.

Their faces are filled with such hope and calm...

They are so full of life...

Perhaps they can be a worthy conclusion to the cycle of death.

As a reminder of the need to appreciate the

living, to accept life in all its diversity,

and accept those you love while they are with you.

- There is.

“Sorry, I blinked. - It's OK.

- Could you blink? - Yes. It won't be noticeable for three minutes.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

- Well, I didn't say that you can't blink... - Excellent...

I am very excited about the upcoming exhibition.

It is important to make an exhibition in New York,

especially in light of the events with the Trade Center towers, and all the

issues with the search for the bodies of the dead that arose after that.

This exhibition is about something very important,

it provokes, it has a hidden meaning.

The exhibition is built as a narrative, as

a consistent discussion of death, decay,

change in the state of the area from contact with death,

and in the center of the hall, surrounded by these

gloomy photographs, there will be a table with portraits.

Like floating...

Ideally, I'd like people to leave feeling uplifted

with a sense of hope.

For these living faces to be their last

impression of an exhibition about death.

You see, I'm not at all sure that the audience will understand me.

People can just come, scratch their heads and say "What does it all mean?!"

Four months before the opening, the Pace Gallery decided to cancel the exhibition.

- I just got ripped off!

I don't even know what to say!

I just dropped my head on the table...

And just sobbed.

I'm shaking... I don't know what to do.

It looks like they just realized that they can't make money on it.

I knew about it from the moment I took the first picture.

But this...

It was an important show...

But they decided they couldn't sell it

and decided not to get involved.

Yes, time to pack...

Nobody needs me! I'm an abandoned child!

How stupid, how humiliating...

Their mother!

Losing confidence...

Maybe it's just me that matters?

Maybe it's important, but no one cares? ..

Or maybe no one should see it?

Maybe it's four years wasted, I don't know...

God!..

I'll be crying all day...

“In fact, Peter McGill, director of the Pace Gallery, has always been afraid of my work.

I came to him with family photos, remember...

I chose the best

"Emmett's Last Nude", "Jessie's Bite",

picked from a huge box...

And he did not want to contact them until sales began to grow...

And then he stopped being afraid of them.

The gallery world is very fickle.

No one there for a long time is the center of attention, everything is constantly changing.

I guess I'm already "stale goods".

October 2003

- There is no fog... - Yes, it cleared up.

- Hi baby!

Do you still need a Volvo? Do you have a pickup... - Yes.

- Why? Well, it's a good car...

I'm concerned about insurance...

How much will it cost...

Because now I have internet

costs have gone up...

- What about art? - No way.

- Come on!..

All to hell and I'll take care of the horses.

Horses make a lot more sense.

- The next exhibition... - Oh, I don't know...

To me!

I would love to exhibit in a museum.

Most likely, there is a place for these works.

Whether the museum will take me or not, that is the question.

This is not such a simple exhibition, and museums

don't have much money, they need a sponsor.

I may have to come to terms with the fact

that these works will never be exhibited.

Well, if so...

I do it because I feel like I have to.

In my opinion, "What Remains" is a very complex cycle of works.

He asks serious questions, in the answers to which many are simply not interested.

Americans have a strange attitude towards death.

They think that it is disgusting and terrible, they are scared

and they want to get it all out of sight as far as possible.

Hide in the hospice, close the coffin.

They do not want to recognize it as an organic part of life.

- Of course, I'm upset about Pace's

refusal, but you have to continue anyway.

Like a bird flying on a windowpane, at first...

And then, just...

Get up, get ready, dust yourself off...

You look to see if you broke anything, and you get down to business again.

Six months later

...I found just a great place for the exhibition, you just

can't imagine better, it's like it was created for such works.

And it's a big national museum, the Corcoran in Washington.

I'm sure the board of trustees was not easy

to persuade, and there will be no sponsors...

Who wants to sponsor an exhibition about death?

The Grim Reaper himself?

Only one thing is not very good -

everyone needs an exhibition in New York, it's the center of the art universe.

Of course, I'm still upset, my hopes were

deceived, but everything turned out for the best.

But the place suits me, because I am a southerner, and

this is one of the predominantly "southern" museums,

and, importantly, my friends here in Lexington, whom

I have known all my life, will also be able to come.

And the exhibition in New York could not.

Washington DC

- Excellent exhibition! - Thank you!

...How are you here? - Just kidding, just wonderful! ..

For me, this exhibition is the real culmination of my career.

Maybe, of course, then there will be something else,

as complete and impeccably organized as this exhibition, but...

...If I don't have any more exhibitions, that will suit me.

For me it was so important.

Sally Mann brings up the subject of death

Photo-study of death

Sally Mann's New Works: Death Follows Them

Captivating pictures, often devoid of life

At the end of a project, I don't feel the relief

or relaxation that everyone thinks should come,

quite the contrary, I am incredibly worried

and exhausted, which is the strangest thing.

And it seems that shooting again is simply impossible.

But, as Hemingway wrote in "A Holiday That's Always With

You," when you're stuck and don't know where to start,

Write one sentence that you are sure of.

And it's the same with photography.

You just need to set up your camera and take one shot.

It doesn't matter what you shoot.

Lately I've been working on a series of close-up self-portraits.

Nothing definite, I don't even really know why I need them...

I guess I should know... Probably just because I can...

...And because when I have no one to pose for, there is always me.

I'm always on the move, always busy with something...

It doesn't often happen that I just lie completely still.

And that's exactly what you need to do, six minutes in a row.

For people of my temperament, it is

useful to force yourself to stand still.

When you take a self-portrait, you plunge into a special state,

you almost lose your sense of yourself.

You try not to blink, so everything starts to swim before

your eyes, as they usually say, time seems to slow down...

Consciousness takes out particles of your past, present,

and they all curl in front of you, weaving into a fancy fabric,

faded in several places.

Directed by Stephen Cantor

Editor Pax Wassermann

Cinematographer Paul Dokuchitz

Producers: Steven Cantor, Daniel Leykind, Pax Wassermann, Mandy Stein

Executive Producer Susan Jordes

Composers: Billy Cote, Mary Lorson

Russian text: Alexander Mamontov alex@mamontoff.ru

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