Face aux portraits photographiques de Sally Mann. La série "What Remains" (2000-2004)
Portraits captivate when they are considered as human presence and they tend to evade analytical interpretation. Building on this observation, the dissertation addresses the viewer’s response to photographic portraits whose ambiguity challenges attribution of precise meanings. These portraits, which deal with the theme of death, belong to the "What Remains" corpus (2000-2004) of American artist Sally Mann. They re-actualize the old wet collodion process, revisit the formal vocabulary of Pictorialism and evoke 19th century mortuary imagery. Through these historical quotations, the artworks hinder the readability of the referent and produce reversals of meaning: they blur any certainty in perception and any literal interpretation. The dissertation first discusses the various quotation strategies leading to this ambiguity and then examines how they tend to establish the conditions of the aesthetic experience. After re-evaluating some theoretical assumptions about photography, the technical, formal and iconographic parameters are reviewed to assess their respective impact. Based on a framework derived from media theory and psychoanalysis, the work of the medium emerges as the key determinant of the experience of these contemporary portraits.
Sally Mann Sally Mann Photography Pictorialism Portrait Portrait Memento mori Memento mori