Sally Mann, What Remains

Sally later on in her life took many pictures of her immediate family with 8x10 film. This caused a lot of controversy among viewers. The images of her children mimic and act out social and familial roles in their Virginia home. The children try an convey both primal and playful aspects of human behavior. She called this series, "Immediate Family." :When her kids got older she shifted her focus away from her children and focused a lot on landscape she did this with a damaged lens. That requires the artist to use her hand as a shutter, these photographs are marked by the scratches, light leaks, and shifts in focus that were part of the photographic process. Sally won many awards in her life and most of her work currently resides in many museums.

What Remains is a subjective, intimate look at the life and career of American photographer Sally Mann. It is one of the most exquisitely intimate portraits not only of an artist's process, but also of a marriage and a life, to appear on television in recent memory. What Remains feels deeply personal. Mann shares her hopes and fears. The film captures Mann's self-doubts, After watching this all I could think was, "Oh my goodness what spectacular woman Sally Mann is." She's very intelligent and immensely talented. I was first introduced to her work when I saw the series she did of her children. It was amazing. The documentary chronicles her time creating her "Death Series," which was also very thought-provoking. And her views toward death are surprisingly refreshing as well. Plus, where and how she lives resonates so much with me. She's an inspiration indeed.  The director Cantor does an excellent job of letting us get to know Mann through her life and work, and she is such an interesting person! I had never heard of or seen her work before and it's truly beautiful and haunting. “What Remains" is an interesting study on artistic purpose as well as life and death captured on film.  Sally Mann's work really captures my attention and watching this film has definitely made me a fan.