What Remains: The Life and Work of Sally Mann

This is the second documentary Steven Cantor made on Sally Mann. The first was a 30 minute film titled "Blood Ties: The Life and work of Sally Mann". "Blood Ties" concentrated on Sally's very controversial publication "Immediate Family", this is a much longer documentary being an hour and twenty minutes in length and is a far more comprehensive view of her life and work.This documentary discusses several aspects of her life, from childhood to the time the documentary was filmed. Sally talks at length about her father and other things from her childhood which affected her, especially her view of art. She also describes how and when she met her husband.A brief discussion of her series "Immediate Family" is included but is only a small portion of the overall film, which does include some information on what her now grown children are doing. (When "Blood Ties" was made they were still young children.) Sally discusses the morphing of her work from children to landscapes, which resulted in her "Deep South" series.She goes on from there to explain how the death of an escaped convict on her property and other deaths got her started on a new project about decay. That is project for which this film is named. This film spends more time on her "What Remains" series than on her other works. Video of her walking through the Forensic Study Facility for the University of Tennessee and examining and photographing the bodies decomposing there is included in the film.This is an amazing look into the life and work of Sally Mann. It does contain some nudity, both of her children and of her husband. This nudity in mainly in the display of the photographs she has taken of her husband and children."Blood Ties: The Life and Work of Sally Mann" is included with the extras on this DVD (and is also available on a separate DVD from Amazon.com). The extras on this DVD also include eight deleted scenes, excerpts from a photojournalism conference at which Sally spoke, and a few photos from her "Deep South" series, her "Immediate Family" series, and from her "What Remains" series.

As both an artist and a connoisseur of art, I found this in-depth focus on the artist to be sincerely fascinating. Whether you can appreciate her photography or not, it's her raw demonstration of her inner life and struggles that I found most appealing about this doc.The lines I found most intriguing, were the ones that any artist could connect with: "I think it’s important but maybe it isn’t, but maybe it’s important and no one wants to see it. Maybe no one needs to see it. Maybe it’s four years of wasted time."

Idyllic views of the Kentucky landscape and lovely insights into an artist's mind and family. I'm not sure I would be comfortable with sharing nude pictures of my children as a parent, given the world we live in. But in a better world there's nothing wrong with it. Her children seem well-grounded and happy, and the photos are certainly thought-provoking and beautiful. The artist is lucky (and so are we) that she has a supportive husband who also shares an artist's perspective, providing an environment in which she could create freely. It's also good that Mann was able to find an appropriate venue for her photographic exploration of death, which is an inevitability whether we like it or not.

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 have always been a fan of Sally Mann's earlier work, the truth and confrontation of her images and the emotions they instill in those who view them. What Remains pushes that truth even further into the uncomfortable subject of death and decay in a "wabi-sabi" sort of way. I gave it 4 stars and not 5 as I thought I could be more powerful, but not sure in what way, I just felt "something" was missing, but still a film worth watching for any artist or Sally Mann fan.

Sally Mann is one of my art heroes. Mann approaches relatively simple subject matter (such as landscapes, her family & death) & makes them profound through exploration & representation. Mann sees these subjects through a lens (literally & metaphorically) which compels the viewer to reevaluate meaning and thus, hopefully, to grow psychologically and emotionally. In my eyes, this is the ultimate purpose of art.This documentary presents Sally Mann & her family in intimate terms. The viewer gets a good feeling for whom she is, what motivates her and her style of working process. I highly recommend this for any photographer/artist whom is interested in pushing the limits of their own arts.

What seems to be a pretty full account of the trials and tribulations of a working photographer/artist who happens to be one of the most creative and original and sometimes one of the most controversial. Nothing appears to be held back, the triumphs, the setbacks, the outright failures. It's all there to see. I enjoyed this documentary very much and will watch it again.

I learned a lot watching Sally Mann work. She has a plain spoken charm that comes through in her work. I look forward to seeing more of her photography. This film does a lot to make me want to see more of her work. It was refreshing to see the way she works, the equipment she uses and her style is echoed by all of these things and speak volumes.

Sally Mann is most famous for her hauntingly beautiful photos of her children, and the main documentary touches on her work in that area (a half-hour documentary included as a bonus goes into yet more detail, not least the controversy stirred by her pictures and issues of censorship). But, as is soon very clear, she has moved on to other interests - first landscapes, and then images of mortality, some of them shocking in their initial impact (at least to me, and I suppose anyone else who finds the idea of photographing decomposing human corpses beyond the norms of art), but then in their cumulative effect genuinely moving.We not only see Sally Mann at work but also her talking candidly - and to a remarkable degree articulately - about what inspires her, and how her interest in different subjects for her photography has evolved. The main film is also a touching portrait of her marriage to her husband, a one-time artist (and so sympathetic to her work) who now works as an attorney, but now suffering a gradually wasting condition in his muscles. Sally Man talks candidly about her feelings about her husband, and movingly talks about how they first met (when evidently he was someone of impressive physique, so making his wasting disease the more poignant).Another interesting extra is a talk and Q&A session Sally Mann gives at a symposium, in which she speaks about the artist's responsibility not only to their art but also to their subject.This is warmly recommended to anyone who is in the least bit interested in Mann's work, and indeed to anyone wishing to see a thought-provoking documentary about art, raising questions about what it can do in terms of human expression (something beyond mere representation).

Interesting content if you like her photography but it's quite an old documentary and the image quality isn't the best.

Good documentary !!! Love It

Il dvd non è scritto per i dispositivi che abbiamo in Italia, è stato necessario copiarlo con una procedura particolare perchè lo potessi vedere.Lei è una grande fotografa e il fim è molto interessante.

What remains is an intimate view of a very important photographer, Sally Mann. Considered to be one of the most important photographers of all time, her work is both beautiful and at times, troubling.