Immediate Family"These are photographs of my children....Many of these pictures are intimate, some are fictions and some are fantastic, but most are of ordinary things every mother has seen. I take pictures when they are bloodied or sick or naked or angry. They dress up, they pout and posture, they paint their bodies, they dive like otters in the dark river."--Sally Mann, from the Introduction Taken against the Arcadian backdrop of her woodland home in Virginia, Sally Mann's extraordinary, intimate photographs of her children-- Emmett, Jessie, and Virginia-- reveal truths that embody the individuality of her immediate family and ultimately take on a universal quality. Mann states that her work is "about everybody's memories, as well as their fears," a theme echoed by Reynolds Price in his eloquent, poignantly reflective essay accompanying the photographs in Immediate Family. With sublime dignity, acute wit, and feral grace, Mann's pictures explore the eternal struggle for autonomy-- the holding on, and the breaking away. This is the stuff of which Greek dramas are made: impatience, terror, self-discovery, self-doubt, pain, vulnerability, role-playing, and a sense of immortality, all of which converge in Sally Mann's astonishing photographs. A traveling exhibition of Immediate Family, organized by Aperture, opened at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia in the Fall of 1992. |
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adult albums already ancient artist beautiful black hair Bloody Nose blue blurred boys camera Candy Cigarette century child child's face childhood complicated confirmation copying cousins crucial daughter dead death early Easter Dress eccentric Emmett emotion face and body fact fading fear film fleeting focused friends gifts glimpse GORJUS grandmother grim eyes grin Hamm heat hold hope Houk human imaginative instant Jessie kinsman's later least lens lives Loved Child's madman managed Mann's maternal memories Middle Eastern mind moments Mother or Father motive Nude older brothers pain painted parental families past photographic record piercing dark eyes pleasure posed reality recall regret REYNOLDS PRICE Rodwell SALLY MANN seen self-possessed Severn shoe box smile snapshot spotty Squash stare stood story survive tell truths uncles vanishing viewer's Virginia visible vital wait warm watch watercolor Wet Bed who'd who's witness wore a look young man's