Sally Mann

Sally Mann was born May 1, 1951 in Lexington, Virginia. Throughout college she studied creative writing. However, at The Putney School, she took up photography. Her reason: to be alone in the dark room with her boyfriend. At Putney, she had her photographic debut with an image of a nude classmate. After this, her father greatly promoted her interest.

Sally Mann's early career consisted of working as a staff photographer at Washington and Lee Universities and photographing their construction project on a new library. These surreal images were included in her first book, Second Sight. Her second book, At Twelve: Portraits of Young Women, sparked a bit of controversy due to the message and printing style of her images.

Mann is probably best known for her third collection, Immediate Family. These images capture her three children, mostly at their remote summer cabin. Wikipedia explains this collection: "Many [images] explore typical childhood themes (skinny dipping, reading the funnies, dressing up, vamping, napping, playing board games) but others touch on darker themes such as insecurity, loneliness, injury, sexuality and death." Upon the release of this collection, Mann faced harsh criticism due to the nature of the images. Many showed her three children (all under 10) in the nude. Critiques ranged from accusations of child pornography to understanding that she captured real images of childhood. Mann herself explained that these photographs were “natural through the eyes of a mother, since she has seen her children in every state: happy, sad, playful, sick, bloodied, angry and even naked.”

My personal response to Sally Mann's work is that she is fairly incredibly. Although I find the images of her children a tad bit unnerving, I also respect her ability to capture amazing images and print them brilliantly. Her use of light, whites, and blacks to show emotion is really awesome. Then again, when her images are a tad grey, that also makes a statement. In short, I really like her work.



This image is called "Damage Child." In a weird, twisted way, I like it. I reminds me of a school photo backdrop, and the image might as well be a school photo. Except that the child isn't smiling and has an eery look. I like the way the busy shirt pattern contrasts the backdrop and the face.


I've posted this already on my blog and I know a lot of other people have too. Still, I genuinely love it. The highlights on the girl's hair and dress are beautiful, and the shadows in the rest of the image make her stand out even more. Her posture is that of a smoker's. She has obviously seen people smoke before. I also love the expression on her face, I'm not sure why. But it's neat.


This is another one of my favorite images of Sally Mann. The organized chaos of the cosmetics on the ground is beautiful. And the innocence of little kids doing each other's make up juxtaposes the real nature of make up, which is not innocent at all. The sun hitting their faces makes the image even better.


"Art:21 . Sally Mann . Biography . Documentary Film |." PBS. 29 Apr. 2009 .

Mann, Sally. Illustrator Group Soup. 29 Apr. 2009 .

Mann, Sally. Sally Mann - Damaged Child. Art Net. 29 Apr. 2009 .

Mann, Sally. Ting. thinks. about. 29 Apr. 2009 .

"Sally Mann -." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 29 Apr. 2009 .