what color film did sally mann use for her mexican landscapes?

[cosmicexplosion]

if sally finds the right old lens, points it at the sun, over exposes it, tilts it, blurs it, scratches it, filters it, does a voodoo chicken dance on it, soaks it in the sea, squirts her breasts milk on it, then under develops it, dodges it burns it, looks at it, ignores it, dreams it up, lets her imagination float away with it, pulls a swifty with it, bangs it, sandpapers it listens to it....

how is that of less value than someone who exposes a film according to the directions on the box?

my support goes behind any one doing something different.

even if i dont like it. it shows creativity, to just go with what you like as an artist, and like van gogh, people might only catch on years later...

but my answer would be.... i think she gets that effect from experimenting.

[Bill_1856]

It appears to me that she's just trying to make her pictures look in color like what she's been doing for the last several years in B&W. My guess is that she's using a negative material, not a transparency film.
Have you tried emailing her directly?

[codyjgraham]

It appears to me that she's just trying to make her pictures look in color like what she's been doing for the last several years in B&W. My guess is that she's using a negative material, not a transparency film.
Have you tried emailing her directly?

I have not tried that, I might do that, thanks!

[pbryld]

Someone also mentioned cross processing. Seems quite plausible.

Thoughts?

[Brian C. Miller]

Why bother yourself over how Sally Mann did it then, and just look at the Cross Processing site? Unlike Forest Gump, "Every roll of film you develop is like a box of rabid hamsters. You never know what you're gonna get!"

You can load film forwards or backwards. You can process film in B&W, E-6, or C-41. Underexpose! Overexpose! Try them all!! Use really, really old lenses. Load lots of cheap, uncoated (Tiffen) filters on the front of your lens and point it into the sun. Find some horribly expired film.

Pondering has its limits!!! Take your camera, now, go forth and have some fun!

[jennirose]

Ms. Mann seems to make a big deal out of using wrecked equipment - as if that is neccessary to the inclusion of "feeling" in a photo. Schtick is what it is, maybe a bit if reverse snobbism as well. Perhaps she cannot make a technically good photo with any equipment, and so uses the beat up stuff.

The only time I've ever seen a big deal being made out of the equipment she uses is by folks on this forum...If you take a look at her older work you can see that she can produce technically excellent prints, but instead chooses to provoke certain moods and produce fine art as opposed to certain definitions of "perfect". I (obviously) personally enjoy her work, and the evolution it has taken. How boring it would be if she had just continued to take the same kind of picture for the past 30-odd years. Shows growth, in my opinion.

[Frank Petronio]

I remember her early B&W work. At risk of being slammed as a sexist old white man calling a spade a spade, she played off the fact that she was an attractive young female using a view camera - I knew a few of her teachers and contemporaries who were infatuated with her, much to her benefit. Not an insult to her as much as them because she couldn't help it if she was charming.

Those post-student/pre-kids pictures themselves were no great shakes and kind of muddy rather than using a full tonal range. So I can see her evolution and it's coherent, and she's to be respected for continuing to shoot throughout her life... I think her high point was with her kids when they were young and she's been struggling ever since. She's still an interesting photographer but now that she is no longer an attractive college girl or making provocative photos of her kids, she's having to confront the struggles and hardships that most of us oppressed, beaten down, unattractive, older white males have had to deal with for most of our miserable lives.

[jennirose]

Man, I sure hope that bolded part was sarcasm. Not gonna touch that one.

[Frank Petronio]

I'll stand by that, we're all victims of affirmative action and political correctness where mediocrity is rewarded based on some physical characteristic.

[Michael_4514]

I'll stand by that, we're all victims of affirmative action and political correctness where mediocrity is rewarded based on some physical characteristic.

Satchel Paige.

And getting back to the Sally Mann discussion, I like her work. I don't think that her success is disproportionate to her talent, I just think that most people with her level of talent don't achieve the same level of success.