Sally Mann

Mann, Sally, a converse American photographer, best known for photographs of her three children, often naked in poses that suggest their sexuality. Her widely recognized body of work, At Twelve (1988), similarly portrayed just-pubescent girls. Her later work explored landscapes of the American South, especially the Blue Ridge Mountains in south-western Virginia where she was born, grew up, and currently lives.

            Mann's black-and-white photographs are made with a large-format view camera, thoughtfully and skillfully printed. She has also worked in platinum, Polaroid, and Cibachrome. Her images are generally large and, issued in extremely limited editions, have enjoyed great success both critically and commercially.

            In the late 1980s, the widely exhibited family photographs eventually published in Immediate Family (1992) and Still Time (1994) were attacked as perverse and manipulative, or praised as innocent and beautiful, depending on the political stance of the viewer. In my opinion art is art and it will always be converse.  
            Mann's landscape work is strongly influenced by pictorialism. Appearing less controlled and more flawed than the images of her children, the prints are purposely made with damaged lenses to exaggerate irregularities of focus and evoke historical photography. All her work has a fictional character, and embodies wistfulness for innocence lost or under threat. She has also participated in group commission projects that reflect her values and interests, producing untitled images of windows made from the perspective of the dying for Hospice: A Photographic Inquiry (1996).