Sally Mann

I first became familiar with the work of American photographer Sally Mann when I saw her show at the Corcoran Gallery, heard her speak, and met her at the booksigning for What Remains. I subsequently spoke to her briefly at the screening of a biographical film at the AFI Silverdocs film festival in 2006. One series of photos in the book is images from the Body Farm. Another series - that I found particularly compelling - consists of postmortem images of her beloved greyhound Eva, who Mann disinterred one year after her burial for the purpose of documenting her decay.

Bill Bass and the Body Farm

Bill Bass, retired - but still active - forensic anthropologist, is now legendary for establishing the Body Farm at the University of Tennesee to study rates of decay of the human body. In an article from last December, Dr. Bass notes that he is leading a team exhuming and examining the remains of Harry Houdini (1874-1926). Having secured the permission of Houdini's family, Bass will make the positive identification of the body - based in part on a fracture of the ankle, and a committee of toxicologists, dentists and anthropologists will either lay to rest or confirm rumors that the magician was poisoned rather than dying of a ruptured appendix.