“You always photograph nature, and now you’re pho-
tographing clothing, what happened?”, and that’s ac-
tually not true! These photos are about light and wind
and sky; an article of clothing becomes part of nature.
I love to look at the sky and whatever is in it (clouds,
contrails). I like to look up. It’s a different perspective,
who looks up?
STEVE: In your book, Subterranea, I really like some-
thing that Mark Strand says. This is very interesting in
terms of your new work because this is about being un-
derground and this new work is about being in the sky.
He says, “What is beneath or within? What we think of
the dark or the hidden? The other life, the one that we
know exists, but with rare exceptions ever see, becomes
in Sally Gall’s photographs if not entirely known, then
at least familiar.” I like this quote in terms of your
newer work and think it’s relevant because we are look-
ing up women’s dresses and there’s a fascination with
wondering what’s underneath all of that, especially
as a kid, wondering what’s hidden there. And now it’s
in full bloom and fully revealed in a very metaphori-
cal and beautiful way. How are looking up at the sky,
looking up at the surface water, looking up a woman’s
dress, all related?
SALLY: Yes, there is something comic about looking
up somebody’s skirt. It’s something mysterious, some-
thing you don’t always see but there it is in plain sight
in my hanging skirts. The New Yorker (Vince Aletti)
published a small text on the exhibition and titled it
“The Sly Eroticism of Laundry on the Line”. I love that
title! I love the idea of sly eroticism. My 22-year-old
niece told me she felt like she was a kid in a “blanket
fort”. I thought that was such a great response. It took
me back to my childhood, putting sheets/blankets over
a table and crawling underneath and hiding, hiding
within masses of fabric.
STEVE: That’s what really makes the work successful to
me because it operates on all these levels without being
specific. The emptiness of the work is what makes it your
most full. Is there anything else?
SALLY: I’m a photographer of the real world. Usually I
choose to photograph the sensuality of the natural world,
particularly places of solitude in nature. I like to go hik-
ing in the mountains and the desert. I like the medita-
tive qualities of the ocean. So making this body of work
was very different because I was going into towns and
seeking humanity. I love making images that are both
dynamic and contemplative, that allow the viewer to be
taken to other places.
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