莎莉.曼恩(Sally Mann, 1951-)從1984年至1990年代前期,聚焦於子女官能性的身體,拍攝了一系列探討母職、童年與再現的攝影作品。本文將從具體的風格與圖像分析出發,佐以曼恩與女兒的言論,以及女性主義理論和攝影理論,來詮釋這些相片所建構的母親/攝影家與女兒的主體性。本文開創性的貢獻,在於從攝影美學、寓言與觀視的角度,詮釋曼恩的母性拜物主義(maternal fetishism)。在攝影美學方面,筆者將援引探討攝影拜物主義的理論,來分析曼恩以攝影紀念性地保存子女消逝的模樣。在寓言的面向,曼恩經常藉攝影來重溫與凝止子女在母體孕育成形的感受,以寓言的手法來展現她的母性拜物主義。在觀視的角度,曼恩還以母親/攝影家特有的觸覺性的觀看方式,營造與子女的形象親密無間的拜物幻想。法國的女性主義者露思.伊希嘉黑(Luce Irigaray)等人提出,女性具親密感與觸覺性的認識論,可以顛覆男性以距離與控制為本的視覺中心認識論,筆者將循這條理論路線去詮釋曼恩所展現具親密感與觸覺性的母性拜物主義,所建立的母親/攝影家的主體性,以及其顛覆父權社會認識論的力量。筆者也將從視覺分析著手,輔以曼恩的訪談資料,以及精神分析與社會學的理論,進一步演繹:在曼恩觸覺性的觀視之下,她的女兒逐漸學習與展演與親人、事物與自然較為強烈的聯繫感與親密感,形塑了擁有陰性認識論的女性主體。
Sally Mann’s photographs of her children present the most outstanding photographic performance at the end of the twentieth century in the United States. This article, based on stylistic and iconographic analyses, will compare Sally Mann’s works with related works in the tradition of art photography. By so doing, I will try to decode how Sally Mann negotiates her maternal gaze and how she inscribes special subjectivities of her children within the established artistic tradition and her special historical context. My main innovative perspective is: Sally Mann exhibits a tactile gaze of maternal fetishism in her works. Contemporary feminist scholars have theorized models of female fetishism in order to explore the possibility of women as desiring subjects. Maternal fetishism, one model of female fetishism, means that the mother clings to or creates some fetishes (substitutes) in order to disavow the loss of her symbiotic relationship with the child. I propose that Sally Mann’s photographs of her children are her fetishes to undo her separation with them. This article deals with Sally Mann’s maternal fetishism in three levels. Firstly, the photographic look, from the perspective of Roland Barthes, Christian Merz, and Victor Burgin, is implicated in the structure of fetishism. Secondly, Sally Mann tends to, allegorically, experience the process of (re) producing her children’s bodies through her lens. Most of all, Sally Mann’s fetishistic gaze is embodied by the children’s invitation to touch through exhibiting their close, tactile, and intimate relationship with people, objects, and environment. The girls in her works therefore take on their identity as closer to the senses of touch, proximity, and connectedness. I will also employ theories of the French feminists to argue that women’s close, tactile, and intimate episteme could shatter the power of the male-dominated episteme emphasizing sight, distance, and control.
莎莉.曼恩; 攝影; 兒童; 女性主體; 觸覺性觀視; 母性拜物主義
Sally Mann; photography; children; tactile gaze; maternal fetishism; female subjectivity