Sally Mann

Lexington, Virginia, United States, 1951

            Sally Mann has emerged as one of the most significant photographers of the past forty years, with a body of work that explores the nuances of intimate life and the memory of the American South with both intensity and tenderness. The daughter of Robert Munger, a physician with a passion for photography, and Elizabeth Munger, who ran the bookstore at Washington and Lee University, Mann studied at The Putney School, Bennington College, and Hollins College, where she earned a BA in 1974 and an MA in creative writing in 1975. From the outset, her work has reflected her deep connection to the landscape and history of her native land, addressing themes such as family, mortality, and the enduring racial tensions of the South, always with a perspective that blends technical precision with profound emotional sensitivity.

            A milestone in her career was her series At Warm Springs, part of her iconic work Immediate Family (1992), which documents the daily life of her three children — Emmett, Jessie, and Virginia — on the family farm in Virginia. Taken in 1988, the work captures her children nude while playing in the warm springs of Warm Springs, Virginia, a place steeped in history as an 18th-century leisure destination and retreat for Thomas Jefferson. The black-and-white photograph reveals both the vulnerability and innocence of the children, but also sparked controversy for its portrayal of childhood nudity — a subject Mann defended as a natural expression of family life and a challenge to puritanical norms in American society. Shot with a large-format camera and processed using traditional techniques, the image exudes an atmosphere of intimacy and nostalgia, while the historical backdrop adds a layer of meaning that connects Mann’s personal experience with a broader cultural legacy.

            In series such as Deep South (1998), Mann portrays landscapes heavy with history — Civil War battlefields, cemeteries, and rivers — using the wet collodion process to create images that evoke a timeless melancholy. This approach, which combines 19th-century technique with a contemporary gaze, defines her artistic practice: an act of resistance against forgetting, transforming the everyday into a poetic testimony of human complexity. In 2001, Sally Mann was named “America’s Best Photographer” by Time magazine. However, beyond her photography, Mann is also a celebrated writer: her memoir Hold Still (2015) was a finalist for the National Book Award and received the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. In 2021, she was awarded the prestigious Prix Pictet for her series Blackwater (2008–2012), which explores the relationship between landscape, history, and sustainability.