For the first time in Switzerland, a museum exhibition is devoted to the exceptional oeuvre of Sally Mann. For more than twenty years this American photographer (b. Lexington, Virginia in 1951) has been dealing with the themes of intimacy and the inexorable passage of time. The photographs of Mann's three children, gathered together in 1992 for the book Immediate Family, sparked immediate controversy, while propelling the artist to the summit of the American photography scene. Her oeuvre is centered around portraits of the children, as she observed them closely and with great honesty as they grew into young adults. These portraits are complemented by landscapes - revealing strangely timeless places marked by an exuberant nature seemingly charged with symbolism. The most recent works in the exhibition reward viewing on another level, dealing poignantly with old age, death and decay. With recourse to very old equipment and nineteenth-century photographic processes, Mann infuses her images with a radiant atmosphere. The long exposures render tangible air and light, evoking the great American tradition of the sublime. Fragility is also reflected in the tightly cropped portraits of the three children, the large format inviting contemplative scrutiny. Having become adults, it is difficult to distinguish between Emmet, Jessie and Virginia, as the photographic process takes precedence. By working with glass negatives and the wet collodion method, the artist once again questions memory and the ephemerality of life, or as Sally Mann herself puts it, « what remains ».
The exhibition, conceived by Sally Mann in collaboration with Hasse Persson, has encountered great success since its first showing in Stockholm. It has travelled to Oslo, Helsinki, Helsingborg, Copenhague before arriving in the Fotomuseum Hague, where it enjoyed a record attendance.
This exhibition, together with the Polaroid exhibition which he has curated from the collection, represent the end of the fourteen-year exhibition programme composed by outgoing director William A. Ewing. Taken together, they underline his committment to a rich and varied programme of solo exhibitions, and group or thematic shows. Between 1996 and 2010 the museum has mounted some 286 exhibitions, many of which have travelled extensively in the world. « Edward Steichen » is a case in point, having been seen by more than 750,000 visitors since its début in 2007 ; it will end its tour this year in the United States.