Natalie Schield
Eric Roman
Photo 100
August 6th, 2018
Sally Mann and Immediate Family
From my childhood, I remember my parents taking pictures constantly, no matter what I was doing. I don’t doubt everyone else’s parents did the same, especially when we were in the bath tub. Photographer, Sally Mann, has been taking pictures of her children for a while now, even when they were nude. In her project, Immediate Family, Mann shows intimate photographs of her children reveal truths that embody the individuality of her own family yet ultimately take on a universal quality (“Immediate Family.”). I see nothing wrong with Mann’s photographs, as they are pictures every parent thinks or dares to take.
Immediately, the darker side of childhood, as opposed to more pristine and tired visions of innocence, attracted her. She describes her family photographs as a superstitious means of warding off real harm to her family (Cohen). Parents wouldn’t dare to look at their children with candy cigarettes and would hate to see them bruised and hurt. Mann has the courage to bring out the dark sides of her children’s lives and shows the public her photographs. If anything, she should be applauded. She makes her children mature through pictures and shows other parents the dark sides of what their children can become and do in life. She is certainly not in the wrong, since they are her own kids. If they were someone else’s kids, it would be questionable whether or not giving children candy cigarettes and posing them as adults is okay. I’m sure since they are her own children, the dark, harming, photos show themselves of how scary life can become. This in the end can teach them life lessons.
Her young children appeared unclothed in her series Immediate Family (1984–1994), causing repeated outcries and calls for censorship (“Sally Mann.”). As I questioned in my introduction, what is so wrong with taking nude photos of your own children? Every parent does it, but Mann was brave enough to show the world the pictures of her children. It was not wrong of her to do that, it was wrong for the people to want to censor out innocent children who have agreed to get their picture taken. We as a society need to accept that the only thing wrong with taking pictures like these, is the people who cannot look at these pictures and take it more than just innocent kids and art.
Mann takes beautiful pictures of her kids, and she should never have to stop taking pictures of her immediate family because other people do not see it as art. She is a parent that dared to expose the dark parts of her children’s lives in hopes of scaring it away from them. We are just constantly too afraid of what others think.
Works Cited
Cohen, Alina. “Why Sally Mann's Photographs of Her Children Can Still Make Viewers
Uncomfortable.” Artsy, Artsy, 4 Jan. 2018,
uncomfortable.
“Immediate Family.” Aperture Foundation NY, aperture.org/shop/sally-mann-immediate-family-
book/.
“Sally Mann.” Self-Portrait with Dog by Constantin Brancusi on Artnet, Sotheby's London,
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