Archive for October 2010
From looking deeper at the picture of Sally Mann’s children Emmett, Jessie and Virginia, I can see that there are a range of emotions from the children’s facial expressions. I feel that the children look strong and confidant as their eye contact is looking straight down the camera. This is also connoted through the use of body language with the youngest daughter Virginia having her hand on her hip and her head facing the camera. She is also slightly in front of her two siblings which connotes the contrast as she is the youngest and it almost shows a bodyguard effect. The idea of tough can also be connoted in a range of photos in ‘Immediate Family’ with the two girls dressing in women’s clothing and pretending to smoke.
On Emmetts arm there are friendship bracelets this could be to clearly represent the how the siblings are and that they are all friends.
Sally Mann Immediate Family
PHAIDON
Afterword By Reyolds Price
Published on the U.K. 1992
Accessed on the 30th October
Group Work
As a group we all got together and wrote on this diagram exploring this range of themes of the picture Sally Mann’s children. In the middle of the diagram was ‘your subject’ this being Sally Mann, and from there, there were four main headings, which were cultural contexts, secondary research, primary research and social and historical contexts. From there we then made others headings, connoted by arrows coming off the four main headings, to do with that category. For example for social and historical contexts we found out that Sally Mann was the photographer of the year for the Time magazine in 2001. From looking primary research we found out that the children in her pictures were her children and that they were called Emmett, Jessie and Virginia, and that are 65 images within the collection called ‘Immediate Family’. By using this diagram it gave as a lot information about Sally Mann, and the range of different areas to look at.
Location
The location of the photograph of Emmett, Jessie and Virginia was taken in Sally Mann’s home town Southwestern Virginia. From her book Sally Mann writes ‘The place is important; the time is summer, but the place is home and the people here are my family’. From reading this quote by Sally Mann there is a strong meaning behind all of the photographs in ‘Immediate Family’. This is represented as Sally Mann wanted to capture everything she loved around her in her photos, from the place she has always lived and her family. It also connotes that it doesn’t matter what time of the year it is, but that Sourthwestern Virginia will always be the same and Sally Mann’s home.
Sally Mann Immediate Family
PHAIDON
Afterword By Reynolds Price
Published in U.K. in 1992
Accessed on the 25th October
Immediate Family
From looking at Sally Mann’s book on ‘Immediate family’ I have found out that the three children in her photograph are her children Emmett, Jessie and Virginia. The book was dedicated to her husband Larry with a selection of 65 pictures of their children, using a wide range of different camera angles to capture the perspective of the picture.
Virginia is Sally Mann’s youngest daughter who was named after her mother, this is connoted in some of her pictures called ‘The Two Virginias’.
Sally Mann, Immediate Family
PHAIDON
Afterword By Reynolds Price
Published in the U.K. 1992
Accessed on the 18th October
Questions
This is one of Sally Mann’s photographs taken from her exhibition ‘immediate family’. The picture is a mid shot connoting three children in the centre of the photo. The picture also has good use of depth of field with the children being in focus and the background being out of focus. All of the children in the photograph have a fixed expression as they look straight at the photographer.
From looking at this black and white picture there are a range of different questions that you want to find out such as;
Who are the three children?
Why are the children in the nude?
Where is the location?
What is the relationship between the photographer and the children?
What year was the picture taken?
How old are the children?
Why is the background out of focus?
What camera did Sally Mann use?
Why is the picture in black and white?
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