Jörg Colberg says:
On September 15th, 2009, “Proud Flesh”, a series of new photographs by Sally Mann, will open at Gagosian gallery. Coinciding with the show, Aperture is going to release a monograph containing the photography. In the following essay, prepared for this blog, Sally Mann reveals her thoughts behind "Proud Flesh". The essay and images (which are part of “Proud Flesh”, and which were photographed by Rob McKeever) are © Sally Mann; the images are courtesy Gagosian gallery and Aperture. Click on the images to see larger versions.
GO SEE THE PHOTOS AND READ THE ESSAY NOW at Conscientious. They’re amazing.
Aperture’s description of the book:
Children, landscape, lovers—these subjects are almost as common to the photographic lexicon as light itself. But Sally Mann’s take on these iconic themes, rendered through both traditional and esoteric processes, is anything but common. Astonishingly original both in image and technique, Mann’s work consistently challenges the viewer: in her hands, experiences drawn from daily life are rendered both disquieting and sublime. Now, having studied relationships between parent and child, artist and subject, life and death, Sally Mann: Proud Flesh (Aperture/Gagosian, October 2009) investigates the bonds between husband and wife.
Exquisitely detailed, intimate, psychologically and emotionally intense, Sally Mann: Proud Flesh engages territory most often inhabited by male artists portraying their wives and female lovers as Mann turns the camera to her husband of 39 years, Larry. Beautiful, textured, and provocative, these unprecedented nude studies neither objectify nor celebrate; rather, they go far under the skin to suggest a relationship between man and woman that is profoundly trusting: sensual, sexual, sometimes painful, often indescribably tender, and always unblinkingly honest…
Continue reading at Aperture.
The clothbound book of 33 tritone images on 64 12″ × 14″ pages will be released by Aperture in October of 2009 and will cost US $64.