What Remains plot
"The Life and Work of Sally Mann"
The idiosyncratic and controversial photographer Sally Mann deliberately seeks her subjects close to home, photographing what she loves and what interests her. In 1992 she broke through with an exhibition of a series of black and white photos of her children: Immediate Family. Because her children are often naked on it, the question arises in America whether this is art or child porn. Mann thus inadvertently unleashes a discussion that immediately makes her work famous. With her aesthetic approach to controversial subjects, she often sparks discussions about artistry and ethics. This documentary examines in an intimate way her working process and the development of Sally Mann over ten years and involves them, as she does in her photos, with her living environment, her insecurities and her family. Her husband and childhood sweetheart Larry suffers from a deadly muscle disease and she tries to get a grip on death and decomposition processes through her photography. She not only digs up the bones of her deceased dogs, but also photographs corpses in a forensic laboratory garden. The photo series becomes a dazzling and personal meditation on mortality.