The Way It Looked 1987

Editor: Sally Mann's "The Way It Looked," a gelatin-silver print from 1987, has such a dreamlike quality. The blurriness almost makes the figure disappear. What strikes you about this piece? Curator: Well, let’s consider the gelatin-silver print itself. In 1987, mass-produced color film was cheap and ubiquitous. Mann deliberately chose a more laborious process with a longer history to create this image. Doesn’t the subject matter – childhood – mirror the process? Both intimate, fleeting, and deeply entrenched in societal constructs? Editor: That's interesting, I hadn’t thought about the medium in relation to the subject that way. Does that mean that her choice to use gelatin silver is not just aesthetic but…commentary? Curator: Precisely! Think about the darkroom, the labor, the deliberate manipulation of light and chemicals involved in creating a gelatin-silver print. Mann's work challenges the viewer to acknowledge the social and material construction of photography, and, in this case, the complexities of childhood itself. The material process underscores how what we consider a simple portrait is imbued with labor. Do you think that knowledge changes your interpretation? Editor: Definitely. Knowing how deliberate the process was makes me consider how staged versus spontaneous this seemingly intimate moment might be. Thanks for making me think more deeply about the artist’s choices! Curator: My pleasure! The materials themselves have so much to tell us.