Sally Mann: The Family and the Land, Photographers' Gallery | reviews, news & interviews
Sally Mann: The Family and the Land, Photographers' Gallery
Sally Mann: The Family and the Land, Photographers' Gallery
The American photographer's remarkable images beguile, haunt and disturb
Monday, 28 June 2010
'At Warm Springs' from Mann's controversial series Immediate Familycredit: Sally Mann; courtesy: Gagosian Gallery
Last week I watched a tiny tot being photographed by her father, on a beach in southern Turkey. There was no girlish giggling or splashing about in the sea; rather than a show of carefree happiness, she delivered a studied pose. She assumed an expression of supreme indifference and, with hand on hip and weight on one leg, twisted her body into a seductive coil. The four-year-old was imitating a supermodel! I didn’t see the pictures, of course, but I would still classify this kind of premature sexualisation as child pornography.
Last week I watched a tiny tot being photographed by her father, on a beach in southern Turkey. There was no girlish giggling or splashing about in the sea; rather than a show of carefree happiness, she delivered a studied pose. She assumed an expression of supreme indifference and, with hand on hip and weight on one leg, twisted her body into a seductive coil. The four-year-old was imitating a supermodel! I didn’t see the pictures, of course, but I would still classify this kind of premature sexualisation as child pornography.
more Visual arts
Jane Harris: Ellipse, Frac Nouvelle-Aquitaine MÉCA, Bordeaux review - ovals to the fore
Persistence and conviction in the works of the late English painter
Sargent and Fashion, Tate Britain review - portraiture as a performance
London’s elite posing dressed up to the nines
Zineb Sedira: Dreams Have No Titles, Whitechapel Gallery review - a disorientating mix of fact and fiction
An exhibition that begs the question 'What and where is home?'
Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind, Tate Modern review - a fitting celebration of the early years
Acknowledgement as a major avant garde artist comes at 90
Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art, Barbican review - the fabric of dissent
An ambitious exploration of a neglected medium
When Forms Come Alive, Hayward Gallery review - how to reduce good art to family fun
Seriously good sculptures presented as little more than playthings or jokes
Entangled Pasts 1768-now, Royal Academy review - an institution exploring its racist past
After a long, slow journey from invisibility to agency, black people finally get a look in
Barbara Kruger, Serpentine Gallery review - clever, funny and chilling installations
Exploring the lies, deceptions and hyperbole used to cajole, bully and manipulate us
Richard Dorment: Warhol After Warhol review - beyond criticism
A venerable art critic reflects on the darkest hearts of our aesthetic market
Dineo Seshee Raisibe Bopape: (ka) pheko ye / the dream to come, Kiasma, Helsinki review - psychic archaeology
The South African artist evokes the Finnish landscape in a multisensory installation
Paul Cocksedge: Coalescence, Old Royal Naval College review - all that glitters
An installation explores the origins of a Baroque masterpiece
Issy Wood, Study for No, Lafayette Anticipations, Paris review - too close for comfort?
One of Britain's most captivating young artists makes a big splash in Paris
Add comment