Gallery 103C Side Exhibition

Group C has to create the Side Exhibition by the end of Lesson 4.

 

“At this critical juncture in the history of childhood, the photography of Sally Mann was bound to catalyze debate” (Higonnet, 1998, p. 194).

In this week’s reading material, we were presented with photography and various photographers that were powerful but also had imagery that was a bit controversial. Looking specifically at Sally Man, her photography is easily the most controversial in this reading. But why? Because of her boldness? Because of the fact that it involved children? 

Pictured above is one of her photographs titled, “The New Mothers”. Initially, at a glance, there aren’t any concerns. Upon further detail, you notice that the oldest girl is holding a cigarette. While she isn’t smoking it, she is still holding it. “What really shocked people was that Mann was the mother of the three children she photographed” (Higonnet, 1998, p. 196). Mann’s style of photography makes a good case for the debate of “growing up too fast” and being “stripped of childhood innocence”. To an extent, these two concepts can go hand-in-hand. I feel as though, in Mann’s case it is appropriate for them to go hand-in-hand. The more photos of her work that you look at, the more you start to go down the rabbit hole of her photography. If her main models are her three children, young children, you cannot help but wonder what this is doing to their childhood.

Some of Mann’s photos are harmless while others are quite provocative and mature for her models. This begins the thought provoking wonderings of whether or not she is creating an environment in which her children are growing up too fast. Most of the time, she isn’t photographing her children doing age-appropriate things. Some of her work you could argue that it is in fact age-appropriate, however, the tone of the photo is set for a more provocative theme. Due to the type of poses her children make and the type of content her children are a part of, she is setting them up for a much more older childhood. In fact, her children are quite literally “working” for her. Her photos are very apparent that they are not “candid”. Thus, her Some of Mann’s photos are harmless while others are quite provocative and mature for her models. This begins the thought provoking wonderings of whether or not she is creating an environment in which her children are growing up too fast. Most of the time, she isn’t photographing her children doing age-appropriate things. Some of her work you could argue that it is in fact age-appropriate, however, the tone of the photo is set for a more provocative theme. Due to the type of poses her children make and the type of content her children are a part of, she is setting them up for a much more older childhood. In fact, her children are quite literally “working” for her. Her photos are very apparent that they are not “candid”. Thus, her children are likely aware that when they “pose for Mom” it is viewed in their minds more of as a “job” rather than just a “for fun” candid photo of what they are currently doing at that moment. This begins the thought provoking wonders of whether or not she is stripping them of their childhood innocence. Pictured above, is a photograph from the reading this week. One could argue that this photo doesn’t have any influence on her children growing up too fast because children often engage in socio-dramatic play. Female children often take on the role as a Mother when they are playing house. One could argue that this photo strips her children of their innocence because the oldest is holding a cigarette insinuating that Mother’s smoke. One could continue their argument that by having a child hold a cigarette to pose for a picture, you are creating an environment in which your child is no longer innocent and could likely grow up smoking at an early age because of being exposed to cigarettes in an environment where it is acceptable. “Had she, consciously or unconsciously, exploited their family intimacy to create sensational images that would further her own career” (Higonnet, 1998, p.196)?

Pictured above is another photo from Mann’s widely-discussed and controversial 1989 series ‘Immediate Family.’ I chose this photo because in this photo, Mann’s daughter is again pictured holding a cigarette, which was brought up as a matter of discussion in my classmate’s photo above The New Mothers. 

I would like to use this photo to discuss the idea of growing up too fast (i.e. stripping children of their innocence), and how Mann’s photography itself did or did not have an impact on that aspect of her childrens’ innocence. 

What interests me about this photo is the title, which is “Candy Cigarette.” While the photo is a large-format high-quality black-and-white photo, it’s unclear if the child is holding a real cigarette or not. Regardless, this title plays with the audience because one’s first thought upon seeing the image and before reading the title is: “how could a mother allow her child to hold (or smoke) a cigarette?!” and upon reading the title, they will realize that this is a child engaged in play with candy and not a harmful substance. I think Mann is very cleverly playing with her audience with this photo. She realizes that seeing a child with a cigarette would shock her audience; and she uses this to subvert the audience’s idea of her as a “bad” mother who is “allowing her kids to grow up too fast.” 

Another thought I have on this photo is that while I can’t surmise the exact age of the child, she appears to be around 12-13 years of age, which is a very natural and normal time for kids to rebel and experiment (by doing what their parents tell them not to do). Should this be a real cigarette, Mann is profoundly brave in this photo by showing parents that she’s not afraid of the aspect of childhood that is “growing up” vis-a-viz rebelling against what society/parents tell kids what to do and not do (like smoking). This was obviously very shocking for folks to see in the late 90s, but I think about the equivalent of today’s media with shows like Euphoria, which are also about children-going-on-teenagers, that show quite a bit more than children smoking. Euphoria was groundbreaking because of its raw and graphic view of childhood/early-adolescence, much in the way Mann’s photo series ‘Immediate Family’ was.

I therefore claim Mann is not allowing her children to grow up too fast, or stripping her children of their innocence, but rather acting as a truth-teller by showing the world what children are really like. An entire separate entry could be said about the use of nudity in Mann’s photos; an article I found said that: “Mann herself claimed she never experienced the need to separate her artistry from parenthood – they are both inspired by each other, and, for many, nudity is a common feature of childhood.” (Barnebys) In this sense, Mann is a documenter and storyteller of childhood and is brave enough to show parents perhaps what they’ve forgotten: the innocence of childhood

Mann, Sally. 1992. Sally Mann , https://www.sallymann.com/new-gallery-1/tjfi6zd5rikj49zx32to43nnfg918f. Accessed 2024.

In the photo above, Sally Mann shows us two young boys gazing directly into the camera. One of these children is bleeding, but doesn’t seem particularly concerned about it. This contrasts with many young children who immediately begin screaming and crying upon any injury. The sight of blood is a common and natural trigger for alarm in both children and adults, but the kids here don’t seem upset.

The boys in the photo have flat, perhaps even challenging gazes as they regard the photographer, Mann. They are perfect epitomes of the “knowing child”: they have experienced and perhaps even expect hardship and pain, even as young children. An injury, we could infer, is nothing new to these boys. While an “innocent child”, unaccustomed to injury, would be upset in this situation, these kids seem unphased. 

Sally Mann’s work was controversial in part because of her portrayal of many “knowing children” who stood in contrast to sanitized, buttoned up “innocent children”. The images of injured children, of the girl playing with a cigarette in one of the other photos in our side exhibit, and frequent child nudity in Mann’s work all serve to portray very precocious and knowing children. They make many viewers uncomfortable, including myself, which may be why they have stood in controversy for decades.

The photograph shows Mann’s daughter Jessie, who was five years old at the time, wearing a necklace and playing dress-up with a hat and some makeup. Mann’s children usually appeared undressed and sometimes modeled adult behavior by posing with candy cigarettes or dressing up. These photos caused confusion when they were first published in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Mann was sometimes accused of exposing her children and violating their privacy, while others admired her art work and their normal expressions of childhood. Mann’s intentions were to explore the subjects of feeling vulnerable, innocent, and expressing memory through her images. 

“Jessie at Five” is an example of Mann’s ability to create a complex art work of her daughter, who appears like a child, a mature person, innocent, and playful. The photograph encourages the viewer to analyze Jessie’s thoughts and feelings, as well as her interactions with her siblings and her mother. 

Mann, Sally. 1992. Sally Mann: “Family Pictures”, https://www.sallymann.com/new-gallery-1

The readings this week have prompted us to grapple with the idea of the “innocent child” and the “knowing child”. For the sake of this discussion, I will be focusing on the “knowing child” as there is a famous photographer, Sally Mann, who was mentioned multiple times by Anne Higonnet, and expertly constructed a visual commentary on the topic. Before we discuss the above work provided by Mann, let’s first delve into a quick info session on the knowing child explained to us by Higonnet herself. She had expressed that the “knowing child experiences loss, sadness, anger, grief. The Knowing child has a right to her or his complex experiences of life, friendship, love, and hatred.” (Gallery 103, Main exhibit, “innocent or knowing”) further including that to embrace the knowing child does not mean to embrace knowing as an invitation for abuse to the child; children and adults are different no matter how much a child “knows”. 

Now, let’s connect this information to the above image! Sally Mann has expertly depicted an image that some may describe as the dangers of knowing and a loss of innocence within the child, but that does not take away from the beauty of the moment. Each child represented in the picture, all of them Sally’s own children, seem to have been actively participating in a picnic or tea party of sorts, an activity often associated with childhood and innocence. The fire could be representative of the end of the innocent child and the birth of the knowing child in the sense that fire is not always something that destroys, rather it is a cleanser; something that paves the way for a new. It is for that reason I see this image as not the destruction of the innocent child as Mann herself had expressed her works are not negative, they are “not about her children’s sexuality, but about the ‘grand themes: anger, love, death, sensuality, and beauty.’” (Higonnet pg. 10) This image shows the knowing child enamored by the cleansing fire; the child born anew right in front of our eyes. Truly a masterful piece by Mann!

Works Cited

• Higonnet, Anne. Knowing Child. Pictures of Innocence. New York. Thames and Hudson. 1998. 0500280487. pp. 193-225.
• “Sally Mann: One of Today’s Most Remarkable Photographers | Barnebys Magazine.” Barnebys.Co.Uk, 6 Dec. 2021, https://www.barnebys.co.uk/blog/sally-mann-one-of-todays-most-remarkable-photographers.
• Richard B. Woodward, “The Disturbing Photography of Sally Mann.” The New York Times, (1992) Luc Sante, “The Nude and the Naked,” New Republic, vol. 212 no. 18 (1995). https://www.artsy.net/artwork/sally-mann-jessie-at-5