Dan Kelly - Sally Mann

            From doing research Sally Mann’s project, Immediate Family, and looking at some of the photographs myself, I feel that Mann is in the wrong making and publishing nude photographs of her children. It does seem like her children participated and did not feel uncomfortable, however it makes the viewers uncomfortable. I do not think that Mann is in any way a pedophile, but her publishing these photographs allows real pedophiles to get a hold of them.

            Sally took photographs of her three children; Emmett, Jessie, and Virginia, in their summer home in the early 1990s. Many of her photographs are made to show the American South and to portray her family and their farm. Right when her children were born, she began to photograph them. I do not feel it is that strange to photographs nude babies because babies are always nude. However, when kids become toddlers or any older, that is when it starts to get weird. Why photograph her children nude when there is really no need for it? Mann makes it clear that her kids were always willing to participate and when they did not like a photograph she would not publish it. Her children were so young though; I doubt they thought that having nude photographs of them published was strange or wrong at the time.

            Although these photographs are art, I personally still feel it is wrong to photograph anyone under the age of 18 while nude. When publishing these pieces, Mann should have known the effects and criticism she would receive, but she was shocked by it. Mann may have not got in any trouble with the law, but a man named Robert Mapplethorpe had all of his equipment and nude photographs confiscated by the F.B.I. because he was photographing young girls why they were nude. So, if Mapplethorpe is not allowed to photographs young children nude, I do not think Mann should be able to. A majority of the pictures would have been just as powerful if they children were clothed.

            Also, most children do not run around naked at all times, especially when they aren’t toddlers anymore. Mann must have wanted them nude for her photographs, which I find weird. If she captured her kids nude in the moment it would make me less uncomfortable, but I can tell that they are staged. The New York Times Magazine posted an article where they questioned Mann. “If it is her solemn responsibility, as she says, ‘to protect my children from all harm,’ has she knowingly put them at risk by releasing these pictures into a world where pedophilia exists?” (Woodward). Personally, I feel that she did put her children in harms way. Nude photos of young children are technically pornography, even if it was for photography with an artistic purpose. If she does not want to put her children in harms way, she should not of published naked photographs of them when anyone can get their hands on these photographs.

            Overall, I understand that Mann did not intend for these photographs to come off pedophilic, however I still think she is in the wrong for taking photographs of her children naked. 

Works Cited

Woodward, Richard B. “The Disturbing Photography of Sally Mann.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 27 Sept. 1992, www.nytimes.com/1992/09/27/magazine/the-disturbing-photography-of-sally-      mann.html.

Cohen, Alina. “Why Sally Mann's Photographs of Her Children Can Still Make Viewers   Uncomfortable.” Artsy, Artsy, 4 Jan. 2018, www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-sally-mann-s-photographs-children-viewers-uncomfortable.

Ghorashi, Hannah. “'I Was Blinded By The Controversy': Sally Mann Publishes An Excerpt From Her Forthcoming Memoir -.” ARTnews, 17 Apr. 2015, www.artnews.com/2015/04/17/i-was-blinded-by-the-controversy-sally-mann-publishes-an-excerpt-from-her-forthcoming-memoir/.