5/14/2015 Sally Mann, Photographer

Aleathia says:

It is hard to believe that it has been 2 weeks since I last posted.  I haven't been slacking off and watching bad television, believe me when I say that sounds fun, but I have been busy.  This Relay for Life team has taken me over.  I have been making scented eye pillows with almost every free chance I have had.  The team is coming together and it is gearing up to be a great time.  If you feel like donating anything to help fight cancer you can do so here:  Corning ER and Friends.

One of my favorite uses for this vehicle called blogging is to share art.  It seems like there is an endless supply and if I were diligent I would still not see everything there is to see in this world.  I was driving to work the other day and on NPR Terri Gross was interviewing photographer Sally Mann.  At first I was not sure who she was though the name seemed familiar.

Sally Mann is best known for her collection of work called Family.  It was controversial at the time of its publishing and is still able to make some folks squirm today.  The collection is a series of nude photographs of her children and family.  I remember watching a documentary on her about this collection and Michael was with me.  He was appalled and likened it to child pornography.  He can be a bit over the top sometimes when it comes to such things, but I did have to admit it was disconcerting that she would display her children's naked bodies for everyone to see.  I understand it is art, but what about the children.  In this NPR interview she spoke about these pictures and stated that they were done with dignity and the children, now adults, are proud of the work they did in these photographs and were proud of it then.

You cannot, however, deny that Sally Mann is a gifted photographer who is in love with light and shadow and the craft that she has spent her life honing.  To me the artist is most successful when they can make you slightly uncomfortable because it is in this place, this personal discomfort, that one begins to think about themselves and their relationship to the art.  It allows for critical thinking pertaining to what is acceptable to the heart and what is not.

Sally Mann's work is not limited to her family and her other bodies of work deserve just as much, if not more, attention.  I was interested to hear that she has a collection called Body Farm.  I am currently watching a BBC program of the same name.  A body farm is a place where scientists leave corpses in various conditions and study their rate of decomposition for the purpose of forensics.  This is often how they can tell when a person died by identifying the conditions and insects found on the body.  If you are squeamish then this set of photos may not be for you.

Mann grew up in Virginia and her Southern roots show up in her collection called Southern Landscapes.  This collection has a special place in my heart as many of the photographs were taken in Georgia.  I had the pleasure/displeasure of living there in my 20's.  I lived in the ghetto and I walked everywhere or biked.  It gave me the opportunity to become one with the landscape which is slow and green and always ripe with oppression from both history and heat.

Lastly, the collection I would like to display is Sally Mann's Proud Flesh.  This series of photos was done to document her husband's struggle with muscular distrophy which increases over time.  In the interview on NPR she marked this as her favorite body of work and said that it was the most peaceful and wonderful shoot of her life.  She has been with her husband for over 40 years and she stated this opportunity to work with him was a beautiful spot in her marriage.  Her hope was to not show his weakness in these photographs but to document the progression of a disease there is no control over. She wanted to catch his strength of character.

If you would like to learn more about Sally Mann you can visit her website.  If you would like to hear the Fresh Air interview then you can listen here.

Thanks for sticking with my blog even during the long absences.  I hope there won't be too many more of those.

Lit Bits-6/25/2014

Ally says:

Every Life Has A Soundtrack

When I think back on what made me pick that comic up that day in Midtown Comics, I can’t remember if it was the cover or the title.

Maybe a little of both.

I suppose it doesn’t really matter. Because inside I found a story that rang true from the first few notes….which happened to be from Debaser by Pixies….

“Gonna grow….up to be…be a Debaser.”

MixTape by Brad Abraham contains a cast of characters that reminded me of the kind of person I was in high school – the kind of people my friends were: Unsure. Sarcastic. And constantly using music as a means of communication. This was back at a time when my ability to say 'I like you,' 'I’m sorry,' 'I’m wrong,' and especially 'I love you' – were all better said in the words of someone else, set to a tune you’d never forget.

The first arc of MixTape deals with our main core characters:

Jim Abbott, 17 – Soundtrack: Pixies, Joy Division, REM

Terry Allison, 17 – Soundtrack: Bands you’ll hear about in about a year from now

Lorelei Cross, 17 - Soundtrack: The Smiths, The Cure, the Clash, Kate Bush, Madonna (only in secret)

Noel Dunlop, 17 – Soundtrack : Beastie Boys, INXS, Depeche Mode, New Order

Siobhan King, 17 – Soundtrack: Who cares? She’s back from Europe!

One of the great things about MixTape is that each issue centers on a different character in this core group. One of my favorites was issue 4, which centers around Siobhan, Jim’s love interest. Without giving too much away Siobhan’s story more than any other, details the power of music, the way it gives us a language like a tow rope to scale and navigate the dangerous landscape of high school, love and heartbreak. Siobhan’s sister, who is leaving for Seattle, gives her a single parting gift. A record (I won't tell you which one - read it yourself) and a note: “Every life has a soundtrack, babe. I found yours.”

Look, I've got an older sister. All my music came from her. I understand the power of a bequeathed album especially as a parting gift. I won't lie. I got all teary-eyed.

It is with one part humor, one part heartbreak and one part nostalgia that Brad Abraham weaves this coming of age story. Marco Gervasio and Jok create beautiful stark black and white panels, complete with all the visual “feels” that Abraham crafted for his characters.

I started reading comics late. I wasn’t hooked as a kid by The Capes so I’ve always gravitated to the more independent stream. Comics about regular people managing their life. MixTape is exactly that.

At the end of the series, the ultimate question is asked:

What song do you want them to play at your funeral?

Me? I haven’t decided yet. Today, I’m going with Wave of Mutilation.

“You think I’m dead, but I sailed away. On a wave of mutilation, wave of mutilation.”

Do yourself a favor and check out Brad’s work. 

And follow him. You won’t be disappointed. 

PS....On a side note: Ipods sort of suck don't they? I mean, playlists just aren't the same, are they? I used to spend hours making mix tapes for my friends - passing it to them in the halls in class. And then later on when we got together, all we did was talk about music. Look, I know people wax poetic about the 90's all the time but it was a bit of a high water mark wasn't it? It was a different time. I think that's what Brad does best. He brings you right back there, back when music was everything. 


Aleathia says:

Did you ever have a story that stayed with you for the whole of your life?  A story that crossed your path at just the right time in your personal growth that it affected you deeply?  Yeah, I thought so.  

The fall I turned 14 I started high school.  My teacher Mr. Grinnell assigned this book for a report.  At that point I had never heard of Shirley Jackson.  At first glance one would think this would be a story of winning, of good luck.  When I finished this story I was horrified.  Did things like this really happen?

I grew up in a series of small towns where people helped each other like good neighbors should and everyone knew everyone else's business.  I had never been exposed to the idea of stoning.  It haunted me as a young teenager and I later went to the library (we didn't have the luxury of the internet) and looked up stoning and read about the cultures that implored this method of dealing with things.  That was 27 years ago and this book still haunts me.  

I am not sure they assign this book in school anymore with the world being so politically correct, but kids should read this book to understand the true definition of hard times and hard decisions, to understand the sense of horrid duty.  Shirley Jackson was an amazing writer.  I think she gets overlooked a lot.  Give the old girl a try.