In an effort to inject some culture into our fashion-centric lives, we hopped over to Edwynn Houk Gallery in Midtown to check out Sally Mann’s new exhibit, “Upon Reflection.” For those who aren’t familiar, Ms. Mann is a photographer known for photographing her family (she has a husband and three children) and idyllic southern landscapes. Over the years, the Virginia native has stirred up some controversy too: Her 1992 series, Immediate Family, which included her children—all age 12 and under—playing in the nude at their family’s summer home, spurred accusations of child pornography. She also once photographed decaying bodies at a Forensic study facility, known as “The Body Farm.”
For her latest collection though, Mann retreated to herself. Her series of self-portraits—hung on the walls of the gallery in a sequence of grids—were made using wet-plate positives on black glass, which resulted in stark contrasts of blurry and sharp, smooth and scratched. Each portrait in a set looked like an entirely different person. Some appeared ghostly, while others were more romanticized. Different shades of Sally, if you will. By playing around with chemicals and embracing all the camera’s imperfections, Mann showed us how the dimensions of light and dark can commingle to create a truly spooky effect. Catch the exhibit before it skips town on Nov. 3!
