Sally Mann
Best known for her Immediate Family, collection. The book consists of 65 black-and-white photographs of her three children, all under the age of 10. Many of the themes I’ve noticed while looking at her works seem dark and they touch upon themes such as insecurity, loneliness, injury, sexuality and death. It’s really hard to believe that these are HER children whom she is placing into these odd and even cruel themes. Children are always known for their cheerfulness and light. They bring overwhelming color into the world, and are capable of bringing a smile onto people’s faces. Yet, the way that Mann has placed and moved her little figures around within the frame of the camera, makes everything contradict the already approved notion of children. The Black and White images enhance the mood of her images as like I was mentioning before with the youthful colors, you don’t get the feel of purity. I’m at such a pull to whether or not I can enjoy the images within this collection. There’s one part of me who finds the explorative side of children and the impurity to be somewhat enhancing and truthful, but I suppose the other part of me, wishes to believe that such things like a child’s death, or even a 10 year old girl smoking to be unrealistic, and fake. I understand the things that Mann wants to portray, but there is a bit of an uneasiness in my eyes, knowing that she uses her OWN children to create the work. I don’t think if I was a mother I would want them to even have any suggestion of the darker themes the happen within the world. I will give Mann credit for having good compositions and lighting within her images, and enough information to leave you thinking about what is going on within the picture plane.
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