Sally Mann, uncertainty and the collodion process

by Chris Bertram on January 21, 2010

A bit of mindless surfing had me looking at the execrable Instapundit for the first time in ages … but there was actually something interesting there: a link to Sally Mann, talking about memory, uncertainty and the collodion process. Those 19th-century photographers who managed to produce near-flawless images using the process were really something.

{ 9 comments }

1

Bill Benzon 01.21.10 at 11:17 pm

Wonderful!

2

Beryl 01.22.10 at 2:00 am

Fascinating.

Fans of plate glass negatives should drop by Shorpy’s.

Here are a recent couple that caught my eye:

http://www.shorpy.com/node/7521?size=_original

http://www.shorpy.com/node/7511?size=_original

3

y81 01.22.10 at 4:28 am

Amazing to me how the same people who blithely insist that only criminals and fools like Bushitler could fail to negotiate with the Iranian government spew such venom and contempt for their own fellow Westerners. Here’s hoping your grandchildren are ruled by mullahs, while mine cling to guns and God in the hills.

4

Dr. Hilarius 01.22.10 at 5:14 am

y81: wrong URL. This is Crooked Timber not Stormfront.

5

Matt McGrattan 01.22.10 at 8:01 am

There are a few wet-plate workers on Flickr. Some of them get pretty consistent near-flawless images.

e.g.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/unrealalex/

6

Chris Bertram 01.22.10 at 8:44 am

Thanks for that link Matt!

7

laura 01.22.10 at 3:57 pm

Thanks, Chris. I’ve been a big fan of Mann for years. Have you ever seen the photographs of her children?

8

Chris Bertram 01.22.10 at 4:10 pm

I have Laura. Both beautiful and a bit creepy I thought – there’s one of one of her daughters smoking that comes to mind.

9

roac 01.22.10 at 7:47 pm

I always want to say I know Sally Mann, only I have never actually met her. I went to school for seven years in Lexington, her family (Munger) was prominent, and I certainly knew her mother, who ran the campus bookstore. Larry Mann, her husband, whom I knew by sight, may have been the last person in Virginia to pass up law school and become a lawyer by apprenticeship. A few years after I left, he ran against and nearly beat the incumbent prosecuting attorney, a favorite law school enemy of mine, on the slogan “Why not elect a Commonwealth’s Attorney with a brain?” He carried the town but the rural voters were not receptive. The incumbent got himself disbarred a few years after that, so that turned out OK.

I have to add, since I just found out about it, that this book is about a family from the same milieu whose children I thought I knew quite well, but apparently didn’t know at all. I have bought it but haven’t brought myself to start readibng

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