Depth of field- Sally Mann

 

I have been doing some reasearch into Sally Mann and her work and i have to say i have become an admirer of her work and not just because i love black and white photography. The more research i do into Sally Mann, the more she inspires and interests me.
Sally Mann is an American photographer born in 1951. She is best known for her black and white photographs. She used a very old 8 x 10 view camera for most of her works. In her early career  she began working as a photographer for Washington and Lee University after she graduated, and her photographs, taken in the 1970's, of the construction of the University’s library which where included in her first solo exhibition and her first book, Second Sight. At Twelve, published in 1988, is portraites of children on the edge of adulthood, she capturs the emotions that children of that age feels and i think mixed feelings and moods come out in her images and they give you an insight into what it was like growing into adulhood at them times. I think Sally illustrates short depth of field in alot of these images. In 1992 she published a very controversial collection of her children, Immediate Family, Which where photographs taken, at a remote cabin next to a river, of her young children playing and swiming in the lake nude. I don't think she thought her photographs were anything more than maternal photographs of her childrens childhoods and i think she is trying to show everyday life with her children, the good and the bad but when these images where published people thought they were far too itimate some even  saying it was child pornography but there were a great majority of people looked at the images the same way she did. Again i think she also uses short depth of field in these images to keep your concertration on the subjects expressions. I think she really captures the moods and emotions in her images and the images i have been looking at i think are shown through a mothers and childs eyes.

At Twelve

 

 

 

Immediate Family



 

 

I can see how some people would be mislead by Sally's images but i can also see what she wanted people to see. I think her images are full of mixed emotions good and that we feel in everyday life.