Text by Bob Shell, Copyright 2025
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Famed Photographer Sally Mann Harassed
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Sally Mann was named ‘America’s Best Photographer’ by TIME magazine in 2001. She has exhibited her photographs worldwide to acclaim and awards. Although we’re not close friends, I’ve known Sally for many years and bought all of her books. She lives in rural Rockbridge County, Virginia, and has made the area famous internationally in the world of art with her photographs of the area and local family life.
Now several of her photographs have been seized by police from the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. Fort Worth police removed four of her five photographs that were featured in a group show called ‘Diaries of Home.’ The show ‘explored family and domestic life.’
Apparently some prudes complained that the photographs, which depict Sally’s children naked, were ‘child pornography.’ I’ve seen the pictures in question and there is absolutely nothing sexual about them. We’re living in an America where far too many people equate simple nudity with pornography.
Of course, I am victim to this thinking, too. My nude photos were used against me at my trial, even though they had absolutely nothing to do with the case against me.
Those of us who are aware of the world of photography know of multiple cases of photographers harassed over their photography. Jock Sturgess is a well-known example. His innocent photos of young women on nude beaches in France were used against him in a federal witch hunt.
Lee Hicks, a Chicago photographer I know, had his house raided in the middle of the night by FBI agents, who terrorized his wife and children over his photography. His classic book ‘Generation Fetish’ is kinky, no doubt, but nothing in it is illegal. When he finally got some of his photographs and equipment back after a long legal battle, most had been intentionally damaged. Valuable photographs had been folded, ruining them.
But, to return to Sally Mann, both the ACLU and the National Coalition Against Censorship have condemned the police’s action and say it ‘raises serious First Amendment concerns,’ and is ‘a dangerous escalation of law enforcement targeting … constitutionally protected artwork.’ That’s a gross understatement.
This nonsense was started by Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare who called the seized photos ‘deeply disturbing.’ Pornography, like beauty, is often in the eye (and mind) of the beholder. Sally’s photographs ‘remain in custody pending investigation.’
(Credit: Details from The News-Gazette, Lexington, Virginia, March 26, 2025, story by Scotty Dransfield. www.thenews-gazette.com)
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About The Author: Bob Shell is a professional photographer, author, former editor in chief of Shutterbug Magazine and veteran contributor to this blog. He is currently serving a 35 year sentence for involuntary manslaughter for the death of Marion Franklin, one of his former models. He is serving the 17th year of his sentence at Pocahontas State Correctional Facility, Virginia.
On September 16, 2024 Shell’s release date got moved up six years due to new “mixed charges” law to February 2, 2030. It was 2036.
To read additional articles by Bob Shell link here: https://tonywardstudio.com/blog/bob-shell-the-loss-of-the-worlds-greatest-writer/