This American woman became famous for her candid photographs in which her children were the main characters. The poignant photos mixed game and reality, resulting in a wonderful cocktail called “Immediate Family,” which caused a real flurry of emotions. The photographer faced public criticism, and Sally Mann was accused of veiled child pornography.

Scandalous project

The author of provocative works, whose favorite technique is black and white photography, was born in 1951 in Virginia. Even at school, the little girl loves to develop photographs, and as she gets older she begins to experiment with nudity. After graduating from college, she works as a photographer and organizes solo exhibitions of her works. However, critics do not pay attention to the new name, and Sally Mann’s work remains unknown to the general public.

And only in 1992, when the project “Immediate Relatives” was released, the American woman became famous. Unfortunately, she gained fame after a scandal broke out when the respectable public saw obscene poses in children's photographs. “Intimate pictures are completely normal things that I observe as a mother,” said Sally Mann. The children of the author of works that caused a resonance in society were involved in the creative process from infancy, and the woman considers successful shots to be a real gift of fate.

Documented family life

This is how she documented the life of her family, revealing the happy childhood of three children under the age of 10 from unexpected angles, which the public received with indignation. The footage was filmed in Time relax in the family house by the river, where the daughters and son were having fun and playing in the nude, and the housewives could not understand how they could expose their children to everyone in such a form.

The author of the scandalous photos foresaw a violent reaction from society and consulted with lawyers who said that she could even be arrested for some of the photos. Sally wanted to postpone the exhibition for 10 years so that the older children could make their own decisions and understand the consequences of making the images public. However, the guys did not want to wait that long, and a psychologist was invited to them, who made sure that they consciously made their choice, understanding what the publication could lead to. The children themselves selected the shots they liked for the album. The famous psychiatrist A. Esman said after the scandal that the pictures that aroused public anger “are not erotically stimulating.”

Be that as it may, the album was released, and fierce criticism did not at all hinder the growth of popularity.

Viewer reviews

Viewers were divided into two camps: some were outraged by the provocative photographs depicting children, others reacted to the veiled eroticism with understanding, believing that photographer Sally Mann, who knew about the Puritan upbringing of society, deliberately took such a step in order to add to her popularity. She knew exactly what kind of reaction the controversial project would cause. However, the thoughtful public saw harmony and beauty in everyday life in talented black and white works.

New provocation

Another scandal broke out 13 years ago at an exhibition in Washington, which bore the telling title “Remains.” The main theme was death, about which Sally Mann said that “it must be perceived as a certain point that allows you to see life more fully.” Viewers who have become acquainted with works united by the theme of the inevitability of the end understand that the shadow of an old woman with a scythe haunts them constantly.

An American woman puts on public display what is left of a dead dog and removes decomposed bodies, but the last part of the exhibition, dedicated to her children, inspires hope, and the study of death ends in love. The author of provocative works states that the inevitability of death helps us feel the fullness of life, painted in rainbow shades.

Study of husband's illness

In galleries around the world, the successful photographer exhibits works from his early period of creativity, showing the world from different angles. She creates abstract photographs, landscape photographs, and in some of them, Sally Mann’s sick husband, Larry, who suffers from muscle atrophy, looks into the lens. The American woman reflected her long family life in a separate project called “Spousal Trust” and covering photos over thirty years, including the most intimate ones.

Possessing courage, she explores an incurable disease by looking honestly into the lens of her camera. She knows that the viewer may not see all the explicit works, but this does not scare her: “Perhaps they will become acquainted with them only after my death, but I know that the photographs are already in the laboratory.”

Monochrome works

Describing the nature of the unique creativity of a master who has received many prestigious awards is not an easy task. The shots of the original author resemble dreams or visions. Stagedness in Sally Mann's photographs is kept to a minimum, and her characters resemble people living on another planet and gradually forgetting about their past.

The absence of color in the works is a conscious choice of the creator, who clearly demonstrates a unique style and creates a special magic. Possessing a talent from God, the American woman sees our world through the camera lens differently than ordinary people, and she tries to convey her view of reality to the audience. Her works cause real delight among some, while others condemn them.

Children's problems in the photo

The protagonist of two documentaries, Sally Mann, whose photographs often show members of her family, captures various episodes of childhood and touches on difficult moments in a child's life. It talks about loneliness, self-doubt, vicious thoughts that are not customary to speak about openly in society, and such sincerity shocks many. The master reveals problems that concern children at any age, to which parents often turn a blind eye.

Unreal landscapes

It must be admitted that Sally, who received the “Best Photographer of America” award in 2001, not only photographs people, but also creates stunning monochrome landscapes. Thanks to her special vision of the environment, she produces mystical works, and the audience feels as if they are entering another reality, where there is no human fuss. This is a completely different world in which life flows according to its own laws and rules.

Sally Mann: banned photographer

In 2015, Roskomnadzor blocked the pages of the world’s leading art portal, which contained photographs of an American woman often accused of child pornography. Russian users will not be able to see the works of the controversial master, including a rare photograph of “The Three Graces” taken in 1994. It depicts three naked girls.

Now Sally, whose black and white works are presented in various galleries and museums around the world, lives with her family on a farm in Virginia and continues to work, once again turning to the topic of the human body.

Photographer and actress Sally Mann was born on May 1, 1951 in Lexington, Virginia. Father is physician Robert S. Munger, mother Elizabeth Evans Munger is the owner of a bookstore at the University of Lexington's hometown. Sally and her two older brothers grew up in an atmosphere of creativity and encouragement.

Parents did not forbid their children to discover themselves and the world, welcomed any manifestation of a creative note in their children. The photographer recalls with particular warmth and tenderness her youth in her hometown. He also remembers his father, a man of mystery, so unlike typical doctors, with his extraordinary antics and irrepressible thirst for life. It was he who instilled in Sally the ability to see what is often hidden from our eyes and opened the door to the world behind the photographic lens. And most importantly, he taught her to confidently walk through life and remember that a person with character has no need for a reputation.

Sally Munger graduated from Putney School in 1969, where she studied fine art. In high school, she became interested in photography, starting to photograph her classmates, who without hesitation posed for her in the nude. She then attended classes at Bennington College, where she studied photography with photographer Norman Sayef. There she met her future husband, Larry Mann.

In 1954 she graduated with honors from the literary department of Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia. And a year later I became a master fine arts, having received the specialty “Writing Skills”. But Sally Mann did not indulge in writing; she was attracted by a world that can only be seen through the lens of an old camera. So she began working as a photographer at Washington and Lee University. Did Mann know then that over the years she would make a significant contribution to the development of art, for which she would be awarded an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, that she would become a Guggenheim Prize winner, and her works would be exhibited in museums and galleries in Washington, New York, San Francisco, Boston, Tokyo.

At the age of 26, Sally presented her first photographic works at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, and in 1984 the photo album “Clairvoyance” appeared. Mann never heard any comments on her work, but continued along the planned path. In 1988, photographs were published, combined into the album “Twelve. Portraits of Young Women,” in which the author demonstrated the process of a teenage girl becoming a young woman. Sally Mann's talent was noticed and appreciated, although controversy arose over the perhaps excessive drama and expressiveness of her photographic work.

A real flurry of emotions, criticism and condemnation was caused by her third photo album, entitled “Close Relatives,” which was released to the world in 1992. In sixty-five black and white photographs we see people close to Sally, her husband and their three children, son Emmett, daughters Jessie and Virginia. The fact that they are depicted mostly naked was the reason for heated discussion. Some photos were censored because they were clearly erotic in nature.

Of course, she touched on the difficult moments of a growing child, which are not usually discussed openly: childhood fears, self-doubt, interest in the opposite sex, misunderstanding of adults, loneliness, forbidden dreams and vicious thoughts. Her sincerity surprised many, to put it mildly, even shocked. Accusations of child exploitation and violation of moral principles began to pour in. Most critics and representatives of various child protection committees called these photographs “veiled child pornography.”

But the photographer managed to give a worthy response to criticism and flagellation addressed to her, having secured legal support in advance, and moved forward through new artistic discoveries, which she began to make at a young age. “These are innocent childish poses. If you see eroticism in them, then this is a problem of your perception, incorrect adult interpretations,” she wrote in response to another critic. She also publicly stated that she published the photographs with the consent of the children. According to the author herself, she depicted what an ordinary mother or father sees when raising their children.

In 1994, Sally Mann's fourth photo album, It's Not Time Yet, was published. The traveling exhibition consisted of sixty photographs taken over twenty years, showing not only Sally's children, but also the unusual landscapes of her native Virginia, as well as abstract works. In the same year, director Stephen Cantor presented at the Sundance Film Festival a documentary about Sally Mann, Blood Ties, which was nominated for an Academy Award.

Mann became interested in landscapes back in the mid-nineties, using a century-old photographic process technique. Using this technique, her works were performed, presented at two exhibitions in New York: in 1997 under the title “Sally Mann - Homeland”. Modern Landscapes of Georgia and Virginia; in 1999 - “Deep South”: landscapes of Louisiana and Mississippi. In 2001, Sally Mann deservedly received recognition as photographer of the year, according to Time magazine.

Sally Mann's work is regularly exhibited around the world and is included in permanent exhibitions many museums. Among them are the museums of modern art in New York and San Francisco, the Harvard University Museum in Cambridge, and the Tokyo Museum of Art. The New York Times Magazine stated that "no photographer in history has risen to fame so quickly."

The already famous photographer made people talk about herself with even greater zeal than after the publication of her “Immediate Relatives”. In 2004, at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., photography enthusiasts were presented with works by Sally Mann entitled “Remains.” The exhibition included five sections, four of which were united by the theme of the inevitability of human life, that is, death. In the photographs of the first section we see what is left of Sally's beloved dog. The second contains dead bodies in the process of decay, stored in the Federal Forensic Anthropological Foundation, known as the “body farm.”

The photographs of the third part of the exhibition depict the place in the Mann domain where an armed escaped convict was killed. The fourth section takes us back to the times Civil War in the USA, we see an episode of one bloody battle. It seems that the shadow of death will haunt you more than once, but now we move on to the fifth part of the exhibition and understand that the author is optimistic about the future. In the photographs are Sally Mann's children, and life again began to sparkle with rainbow colors. After all, according to the author of these works himself, death, no matter how depressing it may be, helps us understand the fullness and richness of life.

In her sixth photo album, “The Deep South,” published in 2005, the author included photographs taken between 1992 and 2004. On them you can see very different landscapes: from battlefields and a crumbling mansion overgrown with kudzu, to mystical and somehow unreal pictures of nature in the distant South. Thanks to the author’s extraordinary vision and, to some extent, the technique of the collodion process, the photographs provide an opportunity to look into another reality. It seems that if you touch them with your hand, you will find yourself in another world, where there are no people and their inherent bustle. There life flows on its own and lives by its own laws.

Sally Mann continues to attract interest with her work, which is invariably created in a photo studio on her home estate.

In 2006, the premiere of the second documentary film about the life and work of the photographer, “What Remains,” filmed by the same director Stephen Cantor, took place. He received a special award at the Atlanta festival. At the same time, Mann received an honorary doctorate in art history. True, an unpleasant incident also happened: Sally fell from a dying horse and injured her back. She spent two years recovering from her injury and at the same time took a series of self-portraits.

Later, in 2010, they will be included in the photo album “Flesh and Spirit”, and it will also contain previously unpublished landscapes, early photos of children and a husband who has suffered from muscular dystrophy since 1994. By the way, Mann embodied her family life with Larry in a separate project, “Spousal Trust,” which reflects thirty years of their life together. One must have mutual courage in order not only to fight an incurable disease, but also to photograph it. But Sally Mann is no stranger; she probably knows why and for whom she lives and works. And fans of her work can only wait for new works from a person who openly and honestly looks at the world through the lens of an old camera.

ibigdan copied and pasted a text about the American photographer Sally Mann http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Mann, but then got embarrassed and put it “locked up” http://ibigdan.livejournal.com/14041387.html
IMHO, in vain, because the story is interesting.

Mostly Sally's photographs are in black and white.
I found color photographs only in the "Body Farm" project - slang for the forensic department. Naked charred corpse (red-black), naked half-decomposed corpse with corpse stains, etc. I won’t put such photos in my magazine; those interested can follow the link http://sallymann.com/selected-works/body-farm

One of Sally Mann's projects is called "At twelve", where Sally explores the sexuality of twelve-year-old girls.

According to Wikipedia, in the photo there is a 12-year-old girl next to her mother's boy-friend. Sally really asked the girl to snuggle closer to the man in order to better compose the shot, but the girl refused. A few months after the photograph was taken, the girl's mother shot this boy-friend "A. At the trial she stated that she did so, allegedly because of this boy-friend’s sexual harassment of his daughter.

Sally also really enjoyed photographing her own children.
The only photo I found with a smile is this one.

Basically, something like this:

If anyone doesn’t understand, on the right is a device in the form of a tin cone for cutting off the heads of poultry.

However, Sally also has neutral stories.

The cigarette is fake, in fact it is a candy representing a cigarette.

In general, what is called “gothic”: “from behind the forest, from behind the mountains, guts, mush, hardcore.”
And now I will quote the most talented journalistic and art text, for the sake of which I wrote this post:

Album of our childhood
These photographs are from another - a summer-children's world, barefoot, sunny, remaining in the memory.
We all come from childhood. Our views, our habits, our attitude and sense of beauty are formed at a time when we don’t even think about them. Photographer Sally Mann remembers very well her happy childhood, which she decided to give to her children at all costs.
[...] AdMe.ru selected 33 bright photographs from Sally Mann’s family photo album, imbued with freedom and childish carefree. http://www.adme.ru/fotograf/albom-nashego-detstva-585055/

Note
lily_munchausen left a comment about "33 pictures".
Tough kids. Exactly one and a half smiles for the entire selection. Moreover, one of them is in a child next to the corpse of a deer with a cut neck. Somehow, I and Aftor have very different ideas about a happy childhood. Well, everyone's happiness is different, chush. It’s even artistic in some places, and some are downright mesmerizing. But as illustrations for a mystical thriller, and so that “I gave my children a happy childhood” - there is no such feeling.

I searched for a long time, but where in the photographs of the family album is there another half of a smile? Found. In one of the photographs, in the background, there is some strange girl, not Sally’s daughter. And yes, indeed, you can say that that girl is almost smiling.

She never left her native land for long and since the 1970s she worked only in the southern United States, creating unforgettable series of photographs in the genres of portraits, landscapes and still lifes. Many masterfully shot black and white photographs also feature architectural objects. Perhaps the most famous works of the American are the inspired portraits of loved ones: her husband and small children. At times, controversial photographs brought harsh criticism to the author, but one thing is certain: the talented woman had an invaluable influence on contemporary art. Since his first solo exhibition at the Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, in 1977, many photography enthusiasts have been vigilant about the development of this new genius.

Stepping forward

In the 1970s, Sally explored a variety of genres, growing older while becoming more adept at capturing life. During this period, numerous landscapes and amazing examples of architectural photography were released. In her creative search, Sally began to combine elements of still life and portraiture in her works. But the American photographer found her true calling after her second publication was published - a collection of photos, which is a whole study of the life and way of thinking of girls. The book was called "At Twelve: Portraits of Young Women" and was published in 1988. In 1984-1994. Sally worked on the series Next of Kin (1992), centered on portraits of her three children. The kids were not yet ten years old at that time. Although at first glance the episode seems to present ordinary, routine moments in life (children playing, sleeping, eating), each image touches on much larger themes, including death and cultural differences in understanding sexuality.

In the collection Proud Flesh (2009), Sally Mann turns the camera lens on her husband Larry. The publication presents photographs taken over a six-year period. These are frank and sincere images that upend traditional notions of gender roles and capture men in moments of deeply personal vulnerability.

Ambiguous pictures

Mann also owns two impressive series of landscapes: “Deep South” (2005) and “Homeland”. In What Remains (2003), she offers a five-part analysis of her observations on mortality. There are both photographs of the decomposing corpse of her beloved greyhound and images of the corner of her Virginia garden where an armed fugitive entered the Mann family property and committed suicide.

Sally often experimented with color photography, but in the end black and white photography remained the master’s favorite technique, especially when using old equipment. Gradually she mastered ancient printing methods: platinum and bromine oil. In the mid-1990s, Sally Mann and other photographers with a penchant for creative experimentation fell in love with the so-called wet collodion method - printing, in which photographs seemed to take on the features of painting and sculpture.

Achievements

By 2001, Sally had already received three awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, was constantly in the spotlight of the Guggenheim Foundation, and was awarded the title of "America's Best Photographer" by Time magazine. Two documentaries were made about her and her work: “Blood Ties” (1994) and “What Remains” (2007). Both films won various film awards, and What Remains was nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Documentary in 2008. Mann's new book is called "No Motion: A Memoir in Photographs" (2015). Critics greeted the work of the recognized master with great approval, and the New York Times officially included it on the bestseller list.

Works that are being talked about

It is believed that the world's best photographers are never associated with any one work or collection; all their creativity is embodied in the dynamics of improvement, in following a path that is not destined to be taken. Nevertheless, in Mann’s extensive work at the moment, one can easily single out a landmark collection - a monograph that is hotly discussed even now. This is the “Close Relatives” series, which depicts the author’s children in seemingly ordinary situations and poses.

The passing images are forever fixed in the photo. Here one of the children peed in his sleep, someone showed a mosquito bite, someone dozed after lunch. In the photographs one can observe how each child strives to quickly overcome the border between childhood and growing up, how each one shows the innocent cruelty characteristic of a tender age. In these images live both the fears of adults associated with raising the younger generation, and the all-encompassing tenderness and desire to protect characteristic of any parent. Here, a half-naked androgyne - it is unclear whether it is a girl or a boy - stopped in the middle of a courtyard covered with leaves. There are stains of dirt here and there on his body. Here are flexible, pale silhouettes moving with proud ease between heavy, broad-chested adults. The images seem to remind us of a painfully familiar past that has become infinitely distant and unattainable.

Who is Sally

Of course, it’s difficult to judge creativity without touching on Sally Mann’s personal story. Children and household chores are not the main thing in her life; she first of all creates works of art and only then enjoys routine activities, like an ordinary woman.

In her youth, Sally and her husband were so-called dirty hippies. Since then, they have retained some habits: growing almost all their food with their own hands and not attaching much importance to money. Indeed, until the 1980s, the Mann family made almost no money: their meager income was barely enough to pay taxes. Walking hand in hand through all the obstacles and difficulties that life presented to them, Larry and Sally Mann became a very strong couple. The photographer dedicated both of her iconic collections and “At Twelve Years” to her husband. While she was filming with furious passion, he was a blacksmith and twice elected to the city council. Shortly before the publication of Sally's most famous monograph, her chosen one received a law degree. Now he works in an office nearby and comes home for lunch almost every day.

An extraordinary activity

The best photographers never stop evolving. This can be said about Mann, but her development potential has an interesting limitation: she photographs only in the summer, devoting all other months of the year to printing photographs. When asked by journalists about why she can’t work at other times of the year, Sally just shrugs and replies that she can film her children doing homework or ordinary household chores at any time - she just doesn’t film it.

Roots

According to Sally Mann herself, she inherited her extraordinary vision of the world from her father. Robert Munger was a gynecologist who was involved in the birth of hundreds of Lexington children. IN free time he was engaged in gardening and collected a unique collection of plants from all over the world globe. In addition, Robert was an atheist and an amateur artist. He passed on his unsurpassed flair for everything perverted to his daughter. So, for a long time, the famous doctor kept a certain white snake-like figure on the dining table - until one of the family members realized that the “strange sculpture” was actually dried dog excrement.

The path to the legend

Sally studied photography at school in Vermont. In many interviews, the woman claims that her only motivation for studying was the opportunity to remain alone in a dark dark room with her then-boyfriend. Sally studied at Bennington for two years - it was there that she met Larry, to whom she proposed. After studying for a year in European countries, the future legendary photographer received a diploma with honors in 1974, and after another three hundred days she added to the growing list of achievements by completing a master’s degree - not in photography, however, but in literature. Until the age of thirty, Mann photographed and wrote at the same time.

Today, an incredible woman and popular photographer lives and works in hometown Lexington, Virginia, USA. From the day of publication to the present day, her amazing work has served as an invaluable source of inspiration for people of all creative professions.