Sally Mann

Sally Mann is one of the photographers that my tutor recommended I look at in her feedback from Assignment One as I try to develop child portraiture and where to go with it. Sharon recommended Mann’s series ‘At Twelve’ which consists of portraits of young girls on the cusp of their teenage years, but I also looked at other works of hers to try and balance my opinion.

I must admit that not actually having the books and having to search the internet has been quite hard here. Not because Sally Mann is difficult to find on the internet, but because so many people have an opinion on her rather controversial images that it was sometimes quite hard to find which series a particular image came from.

I first came across a number of her images on line which I thought belonged to ‘At Twelve’, but not all of them may actually have come from that series. To be honest, though, that was kind of beside the point when I saw those particular images. I’d been expecting some nice pretty portraits of girls. You know the kind of thing; in a meadow surrounded by flowers, brushing a horse’s mane for instance. Images which show the innocence of youth just before the teenage years when they perhaps start to lose it.

These images were rather different though, and I honestly found myself feeling rather uncomfortable when I looked at them, so much so that when my wife entered the room, I actually turned them off.  I’ m  a father of a young daughter (aged 4), and I think that had a lot to do with why I felt uncomfortable. I could never imagine myself taking photographs of her naked at age 12, and I could never imagine letting anyone else take photos of her either.

I know that these images are art, but there’s a fine line between when a young girl is a child and when she is becoming a young adult. It therefore came as no surprise to me when I did further research that Sally Mann has courted controversy in several of her series.  As well as the images of nude young girls, she has produced images of rotting corpses (‘What remains’) and images of her own children naked in ‘Immediate Family’.  I saw no problem at all with the little I saw of ‘What Remains’, and while I never even considered any of her nude images of children to be even close to pornography as some people have claimed, I just felt a little uncomfortable. I suppose that’s my problem, though and something I need to get over if I am to be objective as is needed for the study of photography.

I should mention that the images in question only make up a small part of the series ‘At Twelve’.  I can truly appreciate the beauty in other images, well, in the controversial ones too as I try to convince myself to look upon them purely from an artistic view. The composition, beautiful finish and settings are all wonderful, and it’s clear that Sally Mann is a master at this. This then can explain why her images are accepted. I wonder, though, whether the images would have been accepted were Sally Mann male? Would a father taking such images of his daughter be acceptable? I’m not sure.

After a while, and after further research, I did find myself succumbing to the beauty her images and found myself liking many, many more than I disliked. Whether this was because I had a slightly better understanding of her work, or whether I was just becoming desensitized, I’m not sure.

I’m still now really sure what I make of it, but I’ll continue to look in to it to see.

While I was looking online for information regarding Sally Mann, I came across this article here, which helped give me a better insight as to what goes through her mind. I found it really interesting.

I can see what Sharon is trying to do by suggesting I take a look at Sally Mann. It certainly has opened my mind to what can be achieved if you’re prepared to push yourself, and while I don’t think I’ll ever be as controversial as Mann, the majority of her images were certainly inspiring. You can visit her website here .

Tags: At Twelve, Sally Mann