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Sally Mann : mille et un passages
For more than 40 years, Sally Mann (b. 1951) has made experimental, elegiac, and hauntingly beautiful photographs that explore the overarching themes of existence: memory, desire, death, the bonds of family, and nature’s magisterial indifference to human endeavor. What unites this broad body of work—portraits, still lifes, landscapes, and other studies—is that it is all “bred of a place,” the American South. Mann, who is a native of Lexington, Virginia, uses her deep love of her homeland and her knowledge of its historically fraught heritage to ask powerful, provocative questions—about history, identity, race, and religion—that reverberate across geographic and national boundaries. Organized into five sections—Family, The Land, Last Measure, Abide with Me, and What Remains—and including many works not previously exhibited or published, Sally Mann: A Thousand Crossings is a sweeping overview of Mann’s artistic achievements.
332 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
October 29, 2025
sally mann is an incredible visual storyteller. there were times when i was observing her photos or reading about this exhibition that i was uncomfortable; but discomfort is not a bad thing. her photographs are unsettling while gorgeous. her personality is bold. and her life beyond the camera appears to be as uncompromising as her work (a true combination of emotion & intellect).
May 25, 2018
The photographs are incredible and blissfully free from the pornographic photos of her children that infest her other collections.
Also includes a life time line and biography.
Some of the photos at experimentally done to look like old Civil War prints. Very beautiful.
Also includes a life time line and biography.
Some of the photos at experimentally done to look like old Civil War prints. Very beautiful.
May 27, 2019
Different perspectives on history,honest reflections on her relationship with Gee Gee whom Sally and her family adored,detailed descriptions of her photographic processes.There was so much to appreciate in her work and story.
December 5, 2018
Goodness, how I have forgotten to add A Thousand Crossings into my shelves. I tweet often about my love for Sally Mann's photography and I believe I have read all her books, or books about it, but I don't write much about it here.
I was in Washington D.C. on March 31. A joyful day from Cherry Blossoms to dinner with a wonderful stranger I met there, but without a doubt the hours I spent in the presence of Sally Mann's work, exhibited in the National Gallery of Arts, were the highlight of that day and one of my best memories of 2018. A Thousand Crossings was organized into five sections—Family, The Land, Last Measure, Abide with Me, and What Remains. I didn't want to leave. This, the exhibition's accompanying book, is just as good.
Greenough, rightly so, starts the book with one of Sally Mann's quotes from 2007 "Faulkner, Poe, Wordsworth, Pound - all those authors inform my photography and my photographs sing their words back to them."
The book epigraph says it all:
You see
It’s neither pride, nor gravity but love
that pulls us back down to the world
…
The soul makes a thousand crossings, the heart, just one.
John Glenday, 2009
Exhibition is on view at The Getty Center, Los Angeles, through February 10, 2018. I highly recommend it if you happen to be in LA and have a few hours. I have not decided where I will be for Christmas, but if there, I'll definitely visit it again.
I was in Washington D.C. on March 31. A joyful day from Cherry Blossoms to dinner with a wonderful stranger I met there, but without a doubt the hours I spent in the presence of Sally Mann's work, exhibited in the National Gallery of Arts, were the highlight of that day and one of my best memories of 2018. A Thousand Crossings was organized into five sections—Family, The Land, Last Measure, Abide with Me, and What Remains. I didn't want to leave. This, the exhibition's accompanying book, is just as good.
Greenough, rightly so, starts the book with one of Sally Mann's quotes from 2007 "Faulkner, Poe, Wordsworth, Pound - all those authors inform my photography and my photographs sing their words back to them."
The book epigraph says it all:
You see
It’s neither pride, nor gravity but love
that pulls us back down to the world
…
The soul makes a thousand crossings, the heart, just one.
John Glenday, 2009
Exhibition is on view at The Getty Center, Los Angeles, through February 10, 2018. I highly recommend it if you happen to be in LA and have a few hours. I have not decided where I will be for Christmas, but if there, I'll definitely visit it again.
April 14, 2024
I thought some of her "straight" photos were breathtaking.
While I appreciate Sally Mann's explorations with different techniques, I just had a hard time connecting with them
While I appreciate Sally Mann's explorations with different techniques, I just had a hard time connecting with them
June 2, 2018
Remarkable oeuvre of a artistic master photographer - a must for serious ‘readers’.
January 30, 2019
I confess that I had tended to avoid Mann's work because I associated it with her early pictures of her family, some of which I found disturbingly close to child pornography. But I have to say that this career retrospective thoroughly convinced me that Mann is a major artist. Indeed, her work after the family portraits is perhaps as powerful as any I've encountered by any photographer.
A lifetime resident of the American south, Mann's work asks probing questions about the history of the region. Seeing exceptional natural beauty in her Virginia homeland, Mann's lens interrogates Southern landscapes, as if trying to get the land to confess to the horrors that have taken place upon it. Replicating the early photographic process used to document the American Civil War, Mann shows us the sites of the Nat Turner rebellion, the bloodbaths of the Civil War, and the murder of Emmitt Till. But whereas the early photographers were careful to disguise the chemical nature of their image making process, Mann highlights hers, turning her photographs into eerie, at times almost abstract meshes of darkness and light. As different as they are, Mann's landscape odes to hidden historical tragedies reminded me of the similarly haunting (haunted?) paintings of Anselm Kiefer.
The most recent images returned to the family farm, and consisted of fearlessly honest depictions of the artist and her husband as both give way to the ravages of old age. The innocence and freedom of youth that her earliest photos of her children supposedly evinced, has given way to decline and death. One of these late images depicted her husband staring out at a controlled fire on their farm, suggesting the inevitability of destruction, but also its relationship to rebirth.
A lifetime resident of the American south, Mann's work asks probing questions about the history of the region. Seeing exceptional natural beauty in her Virginia homeland, Mann's lens interrogates Southern landscapes, as if trying to get the land to confess to the horrors that have taken place upon it. Replicating the early photographic process used to document the American Civil War, Mann shows us the sites of the Nat Turner rebellion, the bloodbaths of the Civil War, and the murder of Emmitt Till. But whereas the early photographers were careful to disguise the chemical nature of their image making process, Mann highlights hers, turning her photographs into eerie, at times almost abstract meshes of darkness and light. As different as they are, Mann's landscape odes to hidden historical tragedies reminded me of the similarly haunting (haunted?) paintings of Anselm Kiefer.
The most recent images returned to the family farm, and consisted of fearlessly honest depictions of the artist and her husband as both give way to the ravages of old age. The innocence and freedom of youth that her earliest photos of her children supposedly evinced, has given way to decline and death. One of these late images depicted her husband staring out at a controlled fire on their farm, suggesting the inevitability of destruction, but also its relationship to rebirth.
August 19, 2018
Family section read at American Book Center, Amsterdam
August 29, 2018
Stunning!
September 23, 2018
First exhibition catalog I have ever read from cover to cover. Wonderful collection of photographs plus five excellent essays. A worthy companion to Hold Still.
October 10, 2018
dove sta memoria
January 11, 2020
Some repeats from Immediate Family but that’s okay
February 18, 2026
I just finished Mann's recent 2nd memoir and thought I could glean more from seeing her photos again.
September 28, 2025
5/5: Looked at photos but have not read all the essays yet!
This book, visually at least, is super interesting! The photos seem to capture moments like none I've seen before, and have such a vibe / aesthetic that cannot / haven't been captured before. Most of the photos showcase life in the countryside, with lots of interesting backstories to the photos shown. I'd like to warn those who read this to know that some photos may seem graphic or disturbing. Also, I haven't' seen anyone talk about how disturbing or graphic some of the photos are. Anyways, I would definitely recommend the photos, and some of the essays shown in the book. I'm so happy that I found out about this book from Ethel Cain - vie Tumblr. Would recommend!
-Constant Reader
This book, visually at least, is super interesting! The photos seem to capture moments like none I've seen before, and have such a vibe / aesthetic that cannot / haven't been captured before. Most of the photos showcase life in the countryside, with lots of interesting backstories to the photos shown. I'd like to warn those who read this to know that some photos may seem graphic or disturbing. Also, I haven't' seen anyone talk about how disturbing or graphic some of the photos are. Anyways, I would definitely recommend the photos, and some of the essays shown in the book. I'm so happy that I found out about this book from Ethel Cain - vie Tumblr. Would recommend!
-Constant Reader
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews