Immediate Family

by Sally Mann (Photographer), Reynolds Price (Contributor)

Mann's subjects are her small children (a boy, a girl and a new baby), often shot when they're sick or hurt or just naked. Nosebleeds, cuts, hives, chicken pox, swollen eyes, vomiting--the usual trials of childhood--can be alarmingly beautiful, thrillingly sensual moments in Mann's portrait album. Her ambivalence about motherhood--her delight and despair--pushes Mann to delve deeper into the steaming mess of family life than most of us are willing to go. What she comes up with is astonishing. --Vince Aletti, The Village Voice

Genres: Photography, Art, Nonfiction, Art and Photography, Childrens, Biography, Picture Books

88 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Sally Mann (b. Lexington, VA, 1951) is one of America's most renowned photographers. She has received numerous awards, including NEA, NEH, and Guggenheim Foundation grants, and her work is held by major institutions internationally. Her many books include At Twelve (1988), Immediate Family (1992), Still Time (1994), What Remains (2003), Deep South (2005), Proud Flesh (2009), The Flesh and the Spirit (2010) and Remembered Light (2016).

In 2001 Mann was named “America’s Best Photographer” by Time magazine. A 1994 documentary about her work, Blood Ties, was nominated for an Academy Award and the 2006 feature film What Remains was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2008. Her bestselling memoir, Hold Still (Little, Brown, 2015), received universal critical acclaim, and was named a finalist for the National Book Award. In 2016 Hold Still won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. Premiering in March 2018, Sally Mann: A Thousand Crossings, opened at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. This comprehensive exploration of Mann’s relationship with the South traveled internationally until 2020. In 2021 Mann received the Prix Pictet, the global award in photography and sustainability for her series Blackwater (2008-2012). In 2022 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Mann is represented by Gagosian Gallery, New York. She lives in Virginia.

Reviews

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Emmett, Jessie, and Virginia, 1989

This is the first time I had a closer examination of Mann's work. Her name is familiar, yes, but if you'd have asked me to describe her oeuvre, I would've stood there and said..euhm.


The Hot Dog, 1989

The images show a carefree world in which Mann's children grow up. It is also where she herself had had her youth. There is this ethereal quality, fleeting moments of family life.
Most of them spontaneous, some are set up. But who can tell. Or will tell. As the children don't seem to be bothered being the center of attention.


Candy Cigarette, 1989

The one that really made me pause, however, is this image

He is Very Sick, 1986

Glancing at the title, at first I thought her son was sick, too sick to sit up straight, but then my eye drifted sideways, my focus shifted, and I noticed someone in a bed. A hospital bed. And because of the blown out background, you hardly notice him. It occurred to me, how sick is this person? Is he already fading away from life? Is that the light from the tunnel one is supposed to go through at the very end of life?

There was, and still is, some controversy over these images. Mann has been accused of pornography and child neglect. There are a few photos in which the children are nude. But people who see pornography or anything sexual in these, that tells more about them then about Mann. There are also a few in which she photographed the kids after an incident. There is a bloody nose, some stitches, a swollen face.

But as usually the case with rumors and accussations, there is nothing to be concerned of. The children are living in this isolated world where there is barely electricity. They are living the free live on a farm, far away from the urban world. Why wouldn't they run around without clothes?

After reading some articles about this book on the net, her children are (actually were, cause this was published in the 90's) actually cool about their mother being a photographer. They protested when she wanted to hold of publication for ten years, just not to expose them to any scrutiny at that moment.
Emmett being teased of a topless photograph, told his friends he is being paid huge sums of money to model for his mother. Omitting that it was only 25cts per negative.

Now these things make you smile.


Extra articles:
The New York Times
Huffington Post

[Charissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is something slightly disturbing about Sally Mann's images of her children. Of course, having grown up in a hippie household I wasn't shocked by any of them... in fact they kind of seemed familiar to me, her scenes around the place her family calls home. I definitely could have seen my family and hers hanging out. But she really walked to that edge where child nudity walked close to being inappropriate. She was unflinching, looking into the heart of childhood, into humanity. I love that people were so bent out of shape about the pictures. It's so very easy to rile people, I swear. And she probably wasn't even trying to.

Amazing artistry. Provacative, courageous, pure.

[Narjes Dorzade · Rating 5 out of 5]

پیدا کردن کتاب‌هایی از «آپرچر»
آن هم سالی مان که ازرا پاوند در دست می‌گرفت

[Jake · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply brilliant photography. Appeals to me firstly because the subject matter are Sally Mann's own children, and she really subverts overarching societal notions of what childhood is - innocence, immaturity, and purity, for example. The images are not nearly as controversial as the conservative backlash she got in the 90's would lead you to believe, but there is most certainly an eroticism to some of them that implies what conservative thinking does not want to admit... that children are emotive, sensual beings, as much so as adults. Perhaps it took a parent to capture that complex beauty, and Mann takes advantage of her right, as these children's mother, to photograph and display that complexity, critics be damned. Beautiful work that has really inspired my own practice. Can't believe she is from rural Virginia.

[Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I begged for this book for Christmas back in high school and wad thrilled to receive it from my brother. I remember an ensuing argument with my brother-in-law about the content. I think beauty, love, and tenderness are displayed. He thought it pornographic. Still boggles me.

[LaLa · Rating 5 out of 5]

When me and my three year old looked through this together he said he wanted us to have magic and go into the book and play with Sally Mann's youngest daughter.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Sally Mann's final acknowledgments at this end of this incredible photographic journal of her children - "above all, my warm love goes to the three bright spirits whom this book celebrates."
Her vision and ability to capture on camera some of the most intimate and candid moments of a child's life are what make her such a great artist with the camera. The images are both evocative and, at times, provocative, but always extraordinary. Mann introduces this collection of her work with some recollections about her own childhood home. Reynolds Price recalls photographs of his own youth in a thought-provoking afterword.

[Rinku · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amazing photos.

[Timothy Morrison]

The place is important; the time is summer. It’s any summer, but the place is home and the people here are my family.

I have lived all my life in southwestern Virginia, the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. And all my life many things have been the same. When we stop by to see Virginia Carter, for whom our youngest daughter is named, we rock on her cool blue porch. The men who walk by tip their hats, the women flap their hands languidly in our direction. Or at the cabin: the rain comes to break the heat, fog obscuring the arborvitae on the cliffs across the river. Some time ago I found a glass-plate negative picturing the cliffs in the 1800s. I printed it and held it up against the present reality, and the trees and caves and stains on the rock are identical. Even the deadwood, held in place by tenacious vines, has not slipped down.

And the clothes: the Easter dress was made for me when I was six by my mother and her mother, Jessie Adams. When Jessie Mann, thirty years later, spreads out that skirt, the hills that surround her are the same modest ones of our home.

I remember the heat. My mother, a Bostonian, would retreat to her bedroom for the afternoon, tendrils of long black hair stuck to her neck. I'd stay out with Virginia, sitting in her great lap as she peeled the apples, a dozen fat boxers lazing at our feet. The year my parents went to Europe, Virginia took me to her church. All the women wore white gloves and worked their flowered fans. I stood when Virginia stood, and great waves of music rolled over me. They tumbled me like a pale piece of ocean glass, and I washed up outside, blinking in the sudden heat and sunshine of Main Street.- Sally Mann

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interest in this book came from its role inLost Children Archive. The pictures are beautiful -- and she does really interesting things with the light. I can understand the controversy about these images, though. The situation has echoes of Black & White . i understand that the children participated actively in the photography and chose which photographs would be published, but still. On reflection, I find that it's not so much the nudity as the photographs that show the children's vulnerability, especially the one where her daughter has been injured. All told, though, a really useful source on photography, on visual storytelling, on children, and on motherhood.

[Josh Avrom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful photographs giving one the sense of a carefree childhood, through the child's, eyes. I am about the same age as Mann's children, but grew up in the urban Providence during the 90s, but even I was able to see glimpses of my childhood through her photographs, in the same way I could imagine a babyboomer who grew up in the 50s sees theirs through Norman Rockwell's paintings.

Of course, this book has its criticism, but as someone who is a naturist, who has holiday at many naturist campgrounds, and see many families there with children the same age as Mann's, this book is nothing that the critics make it out to be and is a positive reflection of naturism.

[Aly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This work by Sally Mann was very controversial when it came out and I think probably still is. I know some of the photos made me very uncomfortable and questioning whether I want to keep the book or not. But at the same time the way she captures her children in their everyday life is both beautiful and gritty and uncomfortable like life itself. I don’t think I would ever take such photos of my own daughter this way let alone share them with the public, but I think Mann was also capturing a way of life. A way she lived her life and then raised her kids in the same way.

[Kirby Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Favorites:
Damaged Child, 1984
Jessie at 6, 1988
Emmett Afloat, 1988
Tobacco Spit, 1987
He Is Very Sick, 1986
Rodney Plogger at 6:01, 1989
Easter Dress, 1986
The Two Virginias #4, 1991
Jessie and the Deer, 1985
The New Mothers, 1989
Jessie's Cut, 1985
Hayhook, 1989
Emmett, Jessie, and Virginia, 1989
Candy Cigarette, 1989

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another neutral review. I know this book was very controversial when it first came out. In today’s world, it would be even more so. There is no doubt that the photographer has outstanding talent. Who am I to judge somebody in a field I know very little about?

[Orest Mercator · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have such deep admiration for Mann’s fierce poise and for her photography’s combination of philosophic intentionality with homespun imperfection. There’s so much beauty in her work, and I think she just has an excellent eye for composition. Charmed, provoked, and challenged.

[Akshay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing detailed and dedicated capture of family portraits

[Kandise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible work by a brilliant artist.

[Nanllodi Coreta · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is undoubtedly a magnificent book. I love it.

[April · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning photographs paired with dreamy writing. I love this book.

[Fathi Aljishi · Rating 5 out of 5]

good
زين تصور حياة اطفالها وهم ماخذين حريتهم ومتعرين لقد كان الناس في الماضي يلبسون قليلا من الملابس وكان الناس يسبحون في حمامات ومسابح وتوازي عامة وكان رجال يغتصبون الاطفال والبنات ويسرقونهم

[Alex P.G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first I didn't like it very much but where the story progressed I got excited and loved how the story got along

[Aljujosa · Rating 5 out of 5]

The main character is very amazing.

[James mathew · Rating 5 out of 5]

awesome book

[Avi O · Rating 4 out of 5]

also super interesting portraiture

[Alisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

i remember seeing this book in my high school photography class. I remember being somewhat conflicted every time i have had to discuss or comment on her work. my previous recent experience (her book on death) made me want to discard her from my personal inspiration.... but somehow THIS book was calling me.

I'm so glad I listened. Now being a mother (and a user of a large format camera myself), these images are INCREDIBLE! Intimacy with children without any sense of voyeurism (i certainly would hope not, her being the mother and all)... they're amazing, truly truly.

her essay at the beginning is also very nice.

[Cassidy · Rating 5 out of 5]

My absolute favorite photographer. I heard her lecture at RISD and I love how she really doesn't give a care what other people think about her work, she just tries to create something she likes/cares about. I talked to her/corresponded with her about apprenticing and still would like to do that someday, if that remains a possibility...unfortunately, I couldn't really afford to do that in college...

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mann's images in Immediate Family beautifully capture the joys and wonder of youth. This is a collection of photographs of her children over the course of several years. There was some controversy over the subject matter (her often nude children), but there isn't the dreadful sense of latent sexuality present in some of the skeezy quasi-pornographic work of people like David Hamilton or Jock Sturges.

[Crystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely beautiful. These images were photographed on a large format camera with glass negative, which is in and of itself a labor of love. The quality and intensity of these images are just breathtaking. I know some people like to put negative condensation on these images, and some of them are definitely provoking. I don't think people see it as worse than the reality really was. Everyone likes a good controversy.

[Nish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sally Mann has some beautiful children. The confidence these children ooze cannot avoid discussion of infant sexuality. But the children are in typical poses and situations: blood, shit, piss, mud. All these fluids bathe the gorgeous white bodies juxtaposing innocence and filth. Beautiful black and white photos from a very talented photographer.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Almost every photo absolutely blew me away. Even more impressive that she took these with a medium format camera. This has given me a lot to think about in terms of my own photography as I am drawn to these images in a way that I am not drawn to the typical cheesy "smile" photos. I wish I had seen these photos before I watched the documentary.