Sally Mann is best known for her large format black and white photographs many of which, to me at least, have an experimental quality. She came to prominence with her work ‘Immediate Family’ which featured her three children, all of whom were under 10 at the time, playing at the family’s summer cabin. More recently her Memoir ‘Hold Still’ has brought her work to a whole new audience.
I’ve had Sally Mann’s book ‘A Thousand Crossings’ on my desk for the last year or so. The book is the catalog for the exhibition put together by Sarah Kennel of the Peabody Essex Museum and of the National Gallery of Art.
The exhibition and book follows Mann’s exploration of her relationship with her family, the land and her southern heritage in 5 major blocks of work – family, landscape, battlefields, legacy and mortality. There’s a great description of the work and her process on the getty site here.
Watch the short introduction to the exhibition from Sarah Kennel and follow that with the longer introduction by Sarah Greenough. To watch a short video of Mann at work click here.
Andrew Nixon's Photo Blog 