Photographer Sally Mann reveals in her new memoir *Art Work* that she now has reservations about her series “Men,” which features Black men photographed between 2004 and 2018. She writes that she removed 14 of those images from her 2018 exhibition at the National Gallery of Art after the 2017 Whitney Biennial controversy over Dana Schutz’s painting of Emmett Till’s open casket, which made Mann reconsider the ethics of a white artist representing Black subjects. Mann describes the series as “problematic” and acknowledges that historically marginalized people should tell their own stories. She currently has 150 unshown works from the series, which will not appear in a planned 2027 survey.
The article matters because it highlights ongoing debates about race, representation, and authorship in contemporary art, particularly the question of who has the right to depict marginalized communities. Mann’s self-critique reflects a broader reckoning in the art world with white privilege and historical racism, and her decision to remove works from a major museum show signals how these conversations are affecting curatorial and artistic practice. The piece also touches on other controversies surrounding Mann’s work, including the seizure of her photographs of nude children by police, underscoring the persistent tensions between artistic freedom and public outcry.