As police continue to investigate allegations of child pornography involving four photographs featured in a Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth exhibit, some Tarrant County artists raised concerns about the potential long-term effects on the city’s cultural institutions.
Earlier this month, the Fort Worth Police Department launched an investigation into decades-old images by Virginia-born photographer Sally Mann that were featured as part of the recently unveiled “Diaries of Home” exhibition. The Modern describes the theme of the exhibition as exploring “the multilayered concepts of family, community, and home.”
Tarrant County officials, including County Judge Tim O’Hare, raised concerns about the exhibition in several articles published by The Dallas Express, a conservative news website led by former Republican congressional candidate Chris Putnam.
Mann had 21 pieces included in the “Diaries of Home” exhibition co-curated by Chief Curator Andrea Karnes and Assistant Curator Clare Milliken, including a handful from the 1980s that featured the artist’s then-young children. The images removed from the exhibit include a photo centered on Mann’s naked daughter jumping onto a picnic table and another portrait of her son with popsicle drips running down his torso, legs and genitals.
A sign inside the Modern at the beginning of the show warns, “This exhibition features mature themes that may be sensitive for some viewers.”
Visitors to the “Diaries of Home” exhibition at the Modern can see an empty wall next to three remaining Sally Mann photographs. A museum spokesperson would not confirm that the controversial pieces of art were previously displayed on that wall.
The Fort Worth Police Department declined to release a police report on the incident, citing its right to withhold records related to alleged or suspected child abuse or neglect. Bill Aleshire, an open government laws attorney, said the police department is not required to release the pictures involved in the investigation, but other parts of the incident report may have to be released in redacted form.
Mayor Mattie Parker declined to comment on the investigation. Several local art leaders contacted by the Report also declined to comment on the removal of the photos from the “Diaries of Home” exhibition.
Lauren Saba, owner of the Fort Works Art gallery in the Cultural District, said she understands Mann’s artwork may be “too extreme” for some viewers. Her concerns lie with how local controversy has become a “political conversation” when it should not be. Debates over Mann’s artwork have been ongoing for decades, she said.
“Everything I’ve read is about politics, and I just feel like it’s not. This is just a conversation that’s always been going on in the arts,” she said.
Controversy begins anew
Controversy around Sally Mann’s photographs dates back to the 1992 publication of her book “Immediate Family,” a collection of 60 photographs of her three children on their Virginia farm taken over the span of a decade.
“Immediate Family” sold out its first printing within three months, which Mann credited in part to a 1992 article by New York arts critic Richard B. Woodward, who raised questions about the content of her work.
Mann could not be reached for comment on the controversy at the Modern. In a 2015 New York Times Magazine essay, Mann reflected on the legacy of her photography and said she felt “blindsided” by the controversy of her early work.
She was “initially unprepared” to respond to the attention, having thought her relative obscurity and geographic isolation would shield her.
“Into this turbulent climate, I had put forth my family pictures,” Mann wrote. “Although barely a quarter of them depicted a nude child, I was unfailingly described as the woman who made pictures of her naked kids, an assertion that inflamed my critics, many of whom had never actually seen the work.”
A label inside the Modern gallery acknowledges the earlier criticism of Mann’s work.
“In the media, some images were presented in isolation from the series, becoming touchstones for moral and political debates about art and censorship,” the tag reads. “Since then, the knee-jerk controversy has faded.”
In Fort Worth, however, controversy began anew in late December 2024 with a series of articles by The Dallas Express, which accused the museum of displaying child pornography and quoted state Rep. David Lowe, R-North Richland Hills, and Tarrant County GOP Chair Bo French criticizing the exhibition.
“It is crucial that our legal framework leaves no room for predators to misuse the realm of art to display child nudity. Should any loopholes exist, we are prepared to address and eliminate them in the upcoming legislative session in Texas,” Lowe told the Express.
O’Hare recently described the Mann photos featured at the Modern as “deeply disturbing.” He wrote in a Jan. 8 post on X that he had full confidence in law enforcement to investigate the matter.
“I will always be committed to protecting the most vulnerable members of society, our children,” he wrote.
Some residents have been supportive of the investigation, including Joe Goodson, president of the Texas-based Concerned Christian Citizens group.
“My hope would be a return to common sense and protection of children, because I believe that this is yet another attempt to shock the public out of our age-old standard of decency,” he said.
Comments from elected officials and ensuing police involvement have earned national attention, including a statement from the National Coalition Against Censorship expressing concern about the investigation’s impact on free speech.
The nonprofit organization, consisting of 59 groups representing artists, educators, religious communities and labor unions, called for authorities to cease the investigation and return Mann’s work to be displayed.
“Mann’s work, just like that of many artists, may raise questions for some viewers, but any discussion of those questions has now been preempted by disingenuous claims of child sexual abuse and the spectacle of a sensationalized criminal investigation,” the coalition wrote in a Jan. 9 statement.
Have Sally Mann’s photos caused controversy in other cities?
A spokesperson for the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., which displayed Mann’s work during a touring exhibition in 2018, told the Report the museum faced no backlash. None of the photos currently being investigated were included in that exhibition.
The Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C., has a number of photographs by Sally Mann in its collection, including three from her earlier series that include images of her children. A museum spokesperson told the Report the works were last on view in the late 1980s when the artworks were acquired and their records do not show any public comments.
Impact on Fort Worth museums, traveling exhibitions
Saba said she hopes the child pornography allegations don’t impede people from visiting or supporting Fort Worth’s museums.
“I don’t want the attention for our museums to be for these reasons. I hate that this is happening,” she said. “We’re going to have to see how this incident is handled.”
Fort Worth artist Marshall Harris believes the controversy will affect how local visual artists approach their work and what type of content they feel comfortable exploring in the 12th-largest city in the country.
National artists also might not feel comfortable displaying their work in Fort Worth, he added.
“Artists with very controversial themes couldn’t show in Fort Worth without getting an enormous pushback from more conservative voices,” Harris said. “Fort Worth is a small town, and the people who can afford your work are usually the ones that are on the opposite side of your fence.”
“Diaries of Home” is scheduled to be on view at the Modern through Feb. 2.
David Moreno is the health reporter for the Fort Worth Report. His position is supported by a grant from Texas Health Resources. Contact him at david.moreno@fortworthreport.org or @davidmreports.
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