Sally Mann Favorites- Adriana Rossi

Virginia #42 and Hephaestus were my two choices of the many favorites I saw at the Sally Mann exhibit. What drew me to the portrait of Virginia, was the blissful yet somber way her eyes are closed so sweetly. It looks like a delicate moment in the child's mind weither she is really dreaming or not. The soft focus and extreme upcloseness adds to the concept and really makes this photo what it is. I saw this photo is a gallery a couple of years ago, and still enjoy observing every freakle on her gentle little face.
Hephaestus is an equally strong photo and has a quite powerful impact when viewing it in person. I watched part of the video of Sally Mann at the end of the exhibit, and she said something along the lines of "I hope for a mistake. Those mistakes are my blessings." I think Hephaestus is a good example of the way the process really enhances the work. The circular marks add to the composition and are really intriguing because they look as if the man has caught some sort of dieases. The fact that his head is cropped out of the frame also adds to the fact that he seems to be objectifiyed and used as a prop in this piece. Hephaestus was a mystical powerful greek god, and this photo depicts a sick looking man; I find that ironic. Anyway, its a haunting photo.
Overall I enjoyed the exhibit and liked seeing somethings I haven't of hers. The self-protrait was really neat and the room full of figure studies which I think was called Matter Lost was very successful. It was a series of objects, flowers, and human legs underwater which I thought were very interesting and dreamlike, especially because my sense of scale was thrown off when looking at them. The flowers were very up close, while the legs further away leaving me wondering if it were a different layer on top of the original photo, or if the flower was really on top of the water, while the child's legs just at a greater distance. Sucessfully confusing. The only thing that bothered me in the exhibit was the color photos of the dead people. Not because they were in color, but because they seemed slightly obnoxious to me for other reasons. Something about the distance and the context that they were placed in seemed like she was just glorifying the fact that they are dead people, rather than a poetic study of their remains. In my opinion, the rest of the series which was in black and white, was more successful in regards to concept.