{"id":43345,"date":"2025-09-25T21:11:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T21:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/43345\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T21:11:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T21:11:07","slug":"after-her-photos-were-seized-by-police-sally-man-predicts-new-era-of-culture-wars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/43345\/","title":{"rendered":"After Her Photos Were Seized by Police, Sally Man Predicts ‘New Era of Culture Wars’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TwoModern Art Museum of Fort Worth <\/p>\n

Controversial photographer Sally Mann has warned of \u201ca new era of culture wars\u201d and predicted further attacks on the arts.<\/p>\n

Mann, who recently released a memoir titled Art Work: On the Creative Life<\/a>, made the comments in a new interview with NPR.<\/a> Earlier this year, several of her photographs were seized from the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in Texas after complaints that the work constituted child pornography.<\/p>\n

Mann is one of the most prominent photographers of her generation. Her work often focuses on family, and she is best known for her intimate portraits of children, which have drawn both critical acclaim and public controversy.<\/p>\n

In January, police in Fort Worth seized four of Mann\u2019s photographs<\/a> from the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. The Danbury Institute, a conservative Christian group, accused the museum of displaying child pornography and called for the photographs to be removed, with support from some local officials. A grand jury ultimately declined to bring charges against Mann<\/a> or the museum. But the prints were removed for the remainder of the exhibition but were later returned to her gallery.<\/a><\/p>\n

Reflecting on the incident, Mann described it as \u201cawful\u201d and \u201cshocking,\u201d pointing specifically to social media as one of the tools being used in these conflicts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re entering a new era of culture wars, I\u2019m quite sure,\u201d Mann tells NPR. \u201cAnd I think the people who are pursuing this are much more sophisticated and have many more tools at hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mann predicts additional attacks on art<\/a> by people who, as she put it, \u201cdon\u2019t understand the art they\u2019re vilifying but do understand it\u2019s powerful.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cNever mind that Jesus Christ is portrayed nude in countless historic paintings, and that little putti [chubby winged children] are depicted urinating in fountains across Italian gardens,\u201d she says. \u201cThis idea of completely innocent child nudity being sexualized seems to be the trigger for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mann also cautions that law enforcement removing artwork from public institutions could have a \u201cchilling\u201d effect on other museums and artists, potentially discouraging them from displaying challenging or controversial works.<\/p>\n

Mann\u2019s comments come after the Trump administration directed the Interior Department to purge monuments and historic sites of photos and art reflecting a \u201ccorrosive ideology\u201d that \u201cinappropriately disparages Americans past or living\u201d in his March executive order \u201cRestoring Truth and Sanity to American History.\u201d Last week, it was reported that the Trump administration has ordered the removal of exhibits related to slavery at multiple national parks, including a famous photograph of a former slave<\/a> known as The Scourged Back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth Controversial photographer Sally Mann has warned of \u201ca new era of culture…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,9710,9711,308,93,61,60,32371,4540,32372,9904],"class_list":{"0":"post-43345","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-censorship","13":"tag-democracy","14":"tag-design","15":"tag-entertainment","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-modernart","19":"tag-museums","20":"tag-sallyman","21":"tag-texas"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}