Increasingly, the work I'm doing is in service to an idea rather than just to see what something looks like photographed. I'm trying to explore how I feel about something through photography.
Sally MannRead
The earth doesn’t care where death occurs. ...It’s the artist, by coming in and writing about it or painting it or taking a photograph of it, that makes the earth powerful and creates death’s memory. Because the land will not remember by itself, but the artist will.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Artists have the power to immortalize moments of death through their work.
This quote emphasizes the unique role of the artist in preserving memories of death and the emotional impact of such moments on the earth. While the natural world may remain indifferent to loss, artists breathe life into memories through creative expression, allowing us to remember and feel the significance of those moments.
Themes
EarthDeathArtistMemoryPowerfulPreservationExpression
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of art in society, one might say, 'As Sally Mann said, the artist transforms the Earth’s silence into powerful memories.'
More from Sally Mann
All quotes →Sometimes, when I get a good picture, it feels like I have taken another nervous step into increasingly rarified air. Each good-news picture, no matter how hard-earned, allows me only a crumbling foothold on this steepening climb—an ascent whose milestones are fear and doubt.
Sally MannRead
It's a touchy subject, but as a Southerner, you can't ignore our history any more than a Renaissance painter can ignore the Virgin Mary. And it's impossible to drive down a road or eat a vegetable or pass a church without being reminded of slavery.
Sally MannRead
I can think of numberless males, from Bonnard to Callahan, who have photographed their lovers and spouses, but I am having trouble finding parallel examples among my sister photographers. The act of looking appraisingly at a man, making eye contact on the street, asking to photograph him, studying his body, has always been a brazen venture for a woman, though, for a man, these acts are commonplace, even expected.
Sally MannRead
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You need to keep something for yourself. As a writer, I feel that even more strongly. I feel like I need to be able to freely observe the world. That's the way I like to move through the world; I don't need to be the focus of attention. If I am, it impairs my ability to write and to do what I do.
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