She doesn’t dwell much on her childhood or claim any sort of special early talent. A good example of the artifice of her craft is the bottom image here of her three kids looking collusive in their malevolence and another shot seconds before (above), in which the expression of each is now more innocent and independent. She argues that her kids were well attuned to the stagecraft behind the work to present the contradictions of childhood innocence and preternatural darkness, even admitting precursors to eroticism. For a decent rendering of such art (and accepting the huge degradation from gallery prints), along with an account of her purposes and experience with the controversy, check out the New York Times Magazine article from April 2015: Sally Mann’s exposure: What an artist captures, what a mother knows and what the public sees can be dangerously different things.

Indeed, I couldn’t help wanting to weigh the quality and power this this work against the potential harm to her children from the images drawing the prurient interest of the pedophiles of the world. Because of the controversy she stirred in her use of nude pictures of her children in the early 90s, that topic will be of most interest to the average reader. The resolution is poor in this presentation so don’t consider this book for a reasonable window into her art. This version and the ebook one comes with a pdf file of several hundred images to illustrate her story, including family snapshots, historical images, and examples that reveal the stages in the development of her themes in photography. Her narration of her account in the audiobook version made this experience personal and more powerful. For me this was a treat to experience a photographer I admire looking back at her life to try to identify the influences on her identity and craft in the rural geography and community of her home in Lexington, Virginia, and the diverse threads of heritage from various branches of her family.

Hold still sally mann summary