Decidedly Grim

I’ve been in heaven this week housesitting for my sister in California because the Ovation channel has been featuring photography documentaries every night. On Wednesday night, I caught the best one yet: a documentary on one of my favorite photographers, the distinctly morbid Sally Mann, entitled What Remains: The Life And Work Of Sally Mann. The film follows her as she works on her fascinating series about death, What Remains. Sally is an amazing artist – working with huge glass negatives using the archaic wet colloidal photography process that was used by Matthew Brady during the Civil War – but the best thing about this documentary is realizing what a kindred morbid soul she really is. She’s the type of person who keeps the body of her favorite dog until it has decayed and then holds its mummified leg up and says in awe, “This leg ran all over this farm”. She’s also the type of person who gets permission to photograph corpses at the University of Tennessee “Body Farm” and walks up to a mummified corpse, leans over to get close, touches it and talks about how amazing mummified skin is. And never once complains about the stench or needs to wear a mask. She’s awesome.

And her photographs? Even more awesome. The wet colloidal process creates mysterious imagery that is perfectly suited for the subject matter. I must admit that I don’t actually have the book yet (it has been on my Amazon wish list for several years), but I am ordering it immediately. Salon has a few images from the book in this review of the documentary that give you an idea of their quality: What Remains.

I highly recommend you take the time to watch the DVD (which is available from Netflix). It’s a fascinating look at an intelligent artist with a touch of the macabre. (Oh, and her darkly evocative photographs of her children are awesome as well.)

What Remains: The Life And Work Of Sally Mann (DVD)

What Remains (Book)

Art