Family Subcultures

Subculture as Family

Nicholas Nixon :

Nicholas Nixon, born in 1947, is known for the ease and intimacy of his black and white large format photography.  Nixon has photographed porch life in the rural south, schools in and around Boston, cityscapes, sick and dying people, the intimacy of couples, and the ongoing annual portrait of his wife, Bebe, and her three sisters (which he began in 1975).  Recording his subjects close and with meticulous detail facilitates the connection between the viewer and the subject.

It's obvious that this particular series documents and reveals the gradual changes within time. Every year Nixon would photograph his wife and her three sisters, and to me, this shows their strong bond as siblings. Over the 30 years he photographed them, there position and place are always the same. Perhaps this is done to show how their family line has been strong throughout their childhood. A change in position might suggest their connection is broken or their's been some sort of confliction.

Sally Mann:

Sally Mann was highly criticized for her work because families weren't usually photography the way she photographed them .Mann's photography touches on a more darker theme such as death and 'cultural perceptions of sexuality'. Upon the release of her third collection called the 'Immeadiate family' there was a controversy that spread all throughout America and abroad, accusing her work of being child pornography. Mann herself considered these photographs to be “natural through the eyes of a mother, since she has seen her children in every state: happy, sad, playful, sick, bloodied, angry and even naked.” Critics agreed, saying her “vision in large measure is accurate, and a welcome corrective to familiar notions of youth as a time of unalloyed sweetness and innocence,”

Virginia is shown with her eyes half-lidded, and her arm between her legs, modestly covering herself. She looks serene, and is transformed into a iconic Madonna like figure, her body free from blemish or scar of any kind. The toy horse is lying down in the dirt, its paint chipping. If the horse has been discarded, what does this say about Virginia's childhood and innocence?