Sally Mann (1) (1951–)

This book was an assigned reading for one of my younger son's college classes (not the entire book but some sections) and he passed it along to me thinking I would like it. I did indeed like it a lot. I had seen some publicity in the past about Sally Mann's photography -- some of it controversial -- and Mann does address that in this memoir. Mostly, though, her memoir touches upon her parents and grandparents lives and even the murder-suicide of her inlaws. Other parts were thoughtful discussions of what race relations were in the South in which she grew up, and currently resides.

Of course, being a photographer, this book includes a lot of photographs -- many of her own, which she critiques -- and old-time photos of her relatives. That brought this memoir more to life.

All in all this was a fascinating read.… (meer)

This is photographer Sally Mann's memoir, interspersed with family documents and old family photos, as well as many of Sally's own photos. Sally notes at the beginning of the memoir that her "long preoccupation with the treachery of memory has convinced me that I have fewer and more imperfect recollections of childhood than most people." However, she also refers to photographs, of which ample use is made in this book, as "the malignant twin to imperfect memory." She relates that in 1901 Zola remarked that "you cannot claim to have really seen something until you have photographed it. What Zola perhaps also knew or intuited was that once photographed, whatever you had 'really seen' would never be seen by the eye of memory again."

The memoir is organized loosely chronologically, but also by subject matter: her mother, her father, her time away at school, her various photographic endeavors. She admits to being a "wild child," and she early found her twin passions of photography. She came to fame (maybe notoriety) with her series of photographs of her family, primarily her three children as the passed through the stages of childhood, sometime (gasp!) nude.

I think there is more in this book about her art and her artistic passion than her personal life, but her deep love of family and the land she lives on comes through. She is of the South, but conflicted by its obsessions with the past and the Confederacy. I enjoyed reading about her artistic process, though at times I was a little lost by her descriptions of some of the technicalities about photography.

This was a National Book Award Finalist, and I've had it on my Wishlist since virtually when it was published almost ten years ago. I'm glad I finally got to it.

Recommended.

4 stars… (meer)

I was not familiar with Sally Mann's photographs when I started her book, which is a sort of autobiography. She is an American Photographer who has published a number of books featuring her large format black and white photographs. Her preferred subjects are her immediate surroundings, her family, landscapes and self portraits. She caused some controversy with her second collection of photographs: At Twelve: portraits of a Young Woman.

An autobiography can easily become a platform for self aggrandisement and when I started Sally Mann's book I was very much aware that the author was writing about herself, however by the time I got to the end I felt that she had presented a rounded and believable portrait. The book is subtitled a memoir with photographs and there are plenty of her striking pictures on display which are integrated smoothly with her text. Various themes emerge from the book, helped by the fact that it is not set out chronologically and these are: family life, the culture of living in a confederate state, racism, her ancestry, photography and making pictures, landscape, horses and the art of seeing. There is also a portrait of Cy Twombly an important painter and sculptor who lived quite nearby.

There are a number of chapters on her family which have provided much of the inspiration for her work as a photographer. She and her husband chose to live on a farm by the river which enjoyed an isolated position and so the children were able to run free, just as Sally had done when she was a child. The pictures that caused the controversy were her pictures of her naked children. Her argument was that she was taking pictures of the children in their natural surroundings, however she was using a large format camera and so the children had to be posed: remember the title of her book "Hold Still". At the time when child pornography was being discussed and adolescent girls were being used in fashion photography, it is not surprising that Mann's photographs caused a bit of a furore.

Sally Mann had a black nurse which was quite usual for Southern white families with money. She looks back with a kind of horror that this was an accepted practice. She loved her black nurse/nanny and she is pretty sure that that love was returned, there is nothing that she can do now, but lament on the situation now that she understands the difficulties that her nurse faced during the years of segregation. Her thoughts come close to a baring of the soul and she does a similar thing with regard to the photographs she makes of people:

"It’s a tricky moment: taking the picture is an invasive act, a one-sided exercise of power, the implications of which, when considered in historical perspective, are unsettling. Photography is always invasive, but these experiences are consensual and, in the best hours, transcendent. I have had men, complete strangers, trust me enough to offer up physical characteristics about which they were sensitive—missing digits, scabby, eczema-ridden backs, surgical scars—with no prompting and no embarrassment in the quiet afternoon light of my studio deck."............
Exploitation lies at the root of every great portrait, and all of us know it. Even the simplest picture of another person is ethically complex, and the ambitious photographer, no matter how sincere, is compromised right from the git-go."

Her passion for making photographs and of working flat out to make great art comes across in her writing. Her use of large format cameras makes this a slow and demanding process, that she embraces to get the results that she wants. always looking out for that great photograph through laborious trial and error. She describes how she travels around with her portable darkroom, she talks about the excitement of discovering a new project, she is certainly ploughing her own furrow, learning as she goes along, not having had any formal training in photography. Her enthusiasm is infectious and readers can see the results in the numerous photographs contained in the book.

She spends a lot of print talking about her ancestors, like her photographic work this is a passion that she has explored in great detail. She seems to be searching out her own character traits, trying to ground herself in the people that she is descended from. This is interesting only when it reflects the society and provides context for her own situation, some of it feels a little self indulgent. Her father had a fascination with death, he was a good, kind, generous man, but lacked the ability to show his love for his family. He worked as a doctor of medicine and was well liked by his patients. Sally tries to walk in his shoes to discover more about herself as she too is fascinated by death. There is very little information about her mother and much more about her black nurse.

It is an autobiography where the author opens up about herself, working through her issues, coming to terms with the racism that was inherent in the society that she was part of. She also reflects about her chosen profession coming to the conclusion that photographs destroy memories. I am in agreement with her on this point, as I too think that we are in danger of only remembering the photographs of important events in our lives. Black and white photography and the processes involved in making pictures was a passion of mine before digital photography arrived and so I have a vested interest in Sally Mann's thought provoking book. It is also a brave attempt to place herself and provide a portrait of herself in words. It is well written for the most part and those atmospheric photographs make it an excellent read and feast for the eyes 4.5 stars.… (meer)