Even the children understood the distinction. Once Jessie was trying on dresses to wear to an opening of the family pictures in New York. It was spring and one dress was sleeveless, but when Jessie raised her arms she realized that her chest was visible through the oversized armholes. When she tossed that dress aside, a friend of mine, watching the process, asked with some perplexity, âJessie, I donât get it. Why on earth would you care if someone can see your chest through the armholes when you are going to be in a room with a bunch of pictures that show that same bare chest?âÂ
To which Jessie replied with equal perplexity at the friendâs ignorance: "Yes, but that is not my chest. Those are photographs."Â
Exactly.
Hold Still: Ubi Amor, Ibi Oculus Est (153)
I was definitely stricken with surprise when I read this passage in Sally Mannâs Hold Still. What Jessie said was so simple yet so powerful coming from her. It was surprising to see how much she really understood the complexity of the photos that her mom takes and their meaning at her age. She knows the pictures donât define her or who she is. She knows that they are just photographs taken for the mere art of the picture. Sally Mann felt this way about herself too. She didnât want to be defined as the creepy mom who took nude picture of her children. She felt that she was not being their mother while taking these photos. She was being a photographer. Jessie understands there is a distinction between the relationship with her mom and with her mom when she is taking the pictures. Sally emphasizes this thoroughly in her book and her daughter realizes this too. Jessie isnât herself in those photos, she was just modeling and creating an image with the photographer.Â
Sally Mann has a very confident and proud tone in this paragraph because she is talking about a time when her daughter dumbfounded someone who questioned her decision and feelings about the photos. Jessie knows exactly how her mother feels about these images, and she feels the same. Since Jessie seems almost confused as to why her momâs friend would think otherwise, it shows how confident she is in her answer. She is confident in saying that it isnât actually her chest because, as she says, its just a photograph and not the real thing.Â
The structure of Sallyâs sentences help with powerfulness of the statements. For example, by saying âExactlyâ at the end of the passage, Sally is completely agreeing with Jessie and knows that it couldnât have been said any better. Another thing I noticed was that she also repeats herself when she uses the word âperplexity.â She definitely did this on purpose to make it more impactful because she could have easily used another word there instead. She did this to show that adults arenât always the ones with all the knowledge about certain things. The friend questioned Jessie as if she completely understood how Jessie felt about the pictures of herself, when she was actually wrong in that aspect. Sally even specifically says her friend was ignorant for thinking this way.Â
When I read this paragraph I almost felt proud of the girl myself for standing up for how she felt and her decisions. It was definitely a punctum moment for me because I was happy that she was able to show her reasoning to an adult and make them feel like they didnât really understand the situation that Jessie was in. Nobody in the media understood either, and that was exactly why they got a bunch of controversial trouble for publishing this book.Â
This passage stuck out to me as well, but for a slightly different reason. Although I thoroughly enjoy Mann's photography, I am not able to side with her argument that her pictures are not representations of her children. I myself am not very offended by the nakedness she photographs, but am--very fitting with this passage--perplexed at how Mann can insist that these pictures are merely pictures and nothing more. As Sontag would say it, even though these children are Mann's herself, Mann is stealing parts of her children when she photographs them in their most vulnerable moments.
I was also very impressed with Jessie's response to the prying adult and happy to know that Jessie respected her own privacy and physicality enough to want to be comfortably modest in public. The nature of Mann's photography seems to suggest that such children that we have described as "feral" would not know the difference between revealing clothing or appropriate clothing for the public eye. From this exchange it is clear that Mann's children are highly intelligent and able to understand enough of what they are partaking in when they pose for their mother. I find it highly admirable that Mann has been able to communicate to them a sense of her art and passion and that they willingly oblige.