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WHAT REMAINS: SALLY MANN'S ENCOUNTER WITH DEATH AND WET COLLODION
"All things summon us to death. Nature, almost envious of the good she has given us, tells us often and gives us notice that she cannot for long allow us that scrap of matter she has lent... She has need of it for other forms, She claims it back for other works." Jacques-Benigne Bossuet (1627-1704)
The above quote, nestled in the early pages of Sally Mann's newest book, What Remains, provides both the intent and tone of the images to come. Broken into four sections for a combined total of 79 images, the book is a meditation on mortality and the human condition. The sections progress from actual death and decay to the images of what still remains after death. Taken with a ioo year-old 8xio camera with Mann's hand functioning as the shutter, and using the wet collodion process learnt with Mark Osterman, the images are quite classically Mann's, with deep blacks and dreamy light patterns. Mann, who has never been a stranger to controversial and difficult images, graphically delves into the emotions and biological processes that make up and constitute death and eventual decay.
Section one, entitled "Matter Lent" is broken down into two smaller sections, the first being concerned with the death of Mann's pet greyhound Eva, the second concerning the putrefaction and breakdown of the human body after death. Confronted with the grief of losing a favorite pet on Valentine's Day and the curiosity that followed to know what would become of its body through the...