Customer Reviews

What Remains: The Life and Work of Sally Mann

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The life and work and personality and emotions of Sally Mann are beautifully filmed and evoked, a must to understand her complex, rich, intense personality, her relationship with her children and particularly her husband is deeply touching. Some scenes when she is photographing dead bodies for her show and book What Remains are hard to cope with, but resonate in her artistic , so Southern soul in mixing life and death and love and memory so intensely

I saw this documentary at the Look Photo Festival in Virginia last June and it was incredible. It shed so much light on her thought process and ideas and even showed footage of her actually taking some of her most famed photographs. In my humble opinion, this film is definitely worth the price, if not more!

Length:: 1:41 Mins

Sally Mann is one of the most important photographers of our time, and this dvd is essential to understanding her work as an artist. This dvd deserves 6 stars because in the extras it includes the 30 minute oscar nominated documentary "Blood Ties" that aired on HBO in the early 90's during the "Immediate Family" photos. As well as the new full length doc that takes you through the "What Remains" era and how that concept unfolded from her husbands illness, into the death of her dog, into the suicide of a prisoner on her farm, into the civil war landscapes, into the photos of decaying bodies, into the photos of her children. She really challenges all of our concepts and fears of the subject of death and breaks it down to a beautiful idea of a natural process. I really can't say enough about how important her work is, but this dvd will. All i can say is this is worth your time and money.

I saw this documentary when it premiered at Hot Docs in 2006, and have been waiting since then for its DVD release. As a documentary producer myself, it inspired me to delve into a project that would reveal the intimate and personal details of the life of an artist. I found it compelling, funny at times, sad, and very informative of Sally Mann's life and creative process.

I was slightly sad when I ordered this item because I was told it would probably not be here by Christmas. It was my own fault for buying it so close to the Holiday. In reality the item arrived several days before Christmas and I was elated. It was in perfect condition.

Sally Mann is one of my favorite photographers. This was an amazing film. I cried a few times because it was so touching. It was very inspiring and informative. I am going to show this to my photography studnets and strike up the conversation about what is being debated in terms of her work...is it art? This is a great educational tool and will be a great addition to my personal library.

Easily one of the best documentaries on photography and the artistic process that I've seen. This film is interesting to me in so many ways. Technically, it's amazing to see Sally work with the 8x10, especially in the field with wet plates. As a photographer, I'm inspired to see the marriage of technical skill and personal vision that we all of us strive to achieve, but few of us do. As an artist, it's incredible to see the struggle that Sally goes through to express her view of the world... moments of self doubt, failure, and triumph. This is the life of one of the best photographers of the 20th century, beautifully and shamelessly captured. Buy it, watch it, learn. I did.

This is a good way of getting inside the head of an artist at work.

If you want to learn more about Sally Mann as a photographer, this is great. If you want to see how people struggle with the creative process, this is a great film. If you want to be inspired with how some people deal with adversity and come back even stronger, or how life events shape one's art, you will also appreciate it. For me personally, what I take away from the film is how when scary or bad things happen to most people, they avert, avoid, bury, and forget. The real artist keeps looking, never blinking, and really examines everything, even death, until they find or make something truly profound.

I have my photo students watch this, and at first they are creeped out. Eventually they come around and love it too. Every time I watch it, I see something else that the film maker did, subtle but great transitions and cuts that add layers of meaning. Totally worth buying.