Sally Mann's Powerful Photographs Disturb, Fascinate

Acclaimed photographer Sally Mann has drawn enthusiastic viewers--and a few critics wary of photographing children in the nude--with her series Immediate Family. This photo, Emmett, Jessie, and Virginia is from that series. An exhibition showing the breadth of Mann's work will be on display in the Art Museum through May 30.

In a quarter-century behind the camera, acclaimed photographer Sally Mann has captured the people and places in and around her hometown of Lexington, Virginia. Her still lifes and landscapes of the lush Shenandoah Valley may leave viewers speechless with their beauty. Viewers may experience gasps of a different kind after seeing Mann's compelling images of her children, who often appear nude in her photos. An exhibition of her work, Still Time, opens April 6 and will be on display in the Art Museum through May 30.

Two early 1990s collections--Mann's At Twelve portraits of twelve-year-old girls and the Immediate Family series documenting her three children's daily lives--have particularly drawn controversy. A Chicago Sun-Times writer described the uneasiness these images can cause: "Mann combines the natural voyeurism of the photographer with the natural exhibitionism of children and comes up with a view of childhood much different than the age of innocence adults like to imagine for them... Mann's subjects are wild, imperfect, smeared with emotions and attitudes and messiness that we associate with our own adult lives."

Although the photos are not sexual in nature, some publications have treated them that way. The Wall Street Journal published a nude photo of Mann's then-four-year-old daughter Virginia, but added black-out strips in strategic areas. Artforum refused to publish another nude picture. And Mann has been warned that exhibiting some of her photos could lead to her arrest. Through it all, the children seemed nonchalant about their exposure, and prices of and demand for Mann's photos soared during the controversy. Since then, Mann has moved on to photographing her husband and a series of southern landscapes.

MHC Art Museum Director Marianne Doezema says she chose to include the Mann exhibition in the museum's schedule because "she is a significant and very accomplished artist and because the show demonstrates the breadth of her vision as well as her exceptional technical capabilities in both black and white and color photography."

Because of the controversy that some of Mann's work has prompted, the museum has not only invited Mann to speak about her work (on April 8), but will also offer two talks on her work. On April 15, Martha Sandweiss of Amherst College will speak on "Whose Family Values? The Photographs of Sally Mann," and on April 22, Christopher Pyle, professor of politics, will talk about "Disturbing Images: Censorship and Freedom of Expression in Contemporary Photography."

Mann is almost entirely self-taught as a photographer, though she earned a master's degree in creative writing from Hollins College. She uses a large-format camera that takes eight-by-ten-inch negatives. That technology, combined with her superb printing skills, gives her work startling clarity and detail. Mann is considered one of the finest photographic printers in the country, and is widely acclaimed for her visual language.