Sally Mann: A Thousand Crossings

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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.

Reviews

"all her [Sally Mann's] strengths are on view in a deftly chosen and admirably displayed exhibition in Washington covering most of her 40-plus-year career: Sally Mann: A Thousand Crossings, at the National Gallery of Art. There, 108 images 47 of them never before exhibited and an excellent catalog provide a provocative tour through the photographers accomplishments. It is also a record of exploration into the past, into the countrys history and photographys, stamped with a powerful vision." NY Times
Photographer Sally Mann has been taking haunting images of the American South for more than four decades. This 320-page volume collects the sweep of her work through portraits, still lifes, and landscapes. New York Magazine online

"Virginia-born Sally Mann has not strayed from her home turf and, over a 40-plus-year professional life, her photographic signature has remained constant: a southern gothic sensibility imbued with a heavy tincture of romanticism. A Thousand Crossings showcases her achievement and includes work never seen in print before." The Irish Times

"More than 100 of Manns photographs, including some previously unpublished, are gathered in this richly illustrated retrospective monograph, with accompanying essays from critics and academics. The work affirms Manns reputation as one of the most influential and provocative photographers of the past several decades. Mann, an accomplished memoirist in both words and images skillfully captures the essence of the American South, where she was born and still lives, with photos of Civil War battlefields and Baptist churches, Gothic landscapes and haunting portraits of black men identified only by first names. Mann began her career 40 years ago with intimate and sometimes controversial photos of her three children during their free-range childhood, when they often romped naked at the familys Virginia farm; many of these photos are featured in the book. The most moving images are of her husband, Larry, his body deteriorating due to muscular dystrophy. In one of the essays, cultural critic Hilton Als writes that the portraits and landscapes of Manns homeland with its terrible history and epic natural beauty require viewers to ask, When will the South stop being the South This is an impressive companion to the National Gallery of Arts current exhibit of Manns work, infused with memory, history, culture, identity, and race, and it serves as a fitting tribute to an artist with both an extraordinary mind and an exceptional eye." (Mar.) Publishers Weekly

a direct yet extraordinary look at everyday life, and a unique voice shaped by life in the American South. . . images that feel fresh, real, and vibrant today . . . Manns art moves beyond the style and effects that bring so much historical baggage to create something very honest, curious and yet otherworldly. Dazed

Author Bio

Sally Mann is a celebrated American artist and the author of several critically acclaimed books of photography, as well as the memoir Hold Still, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. She still lives in Lexington. Sarah Greenough and Sarah Kennel are curators at the National Gallery of Art and the Peabody Essex Museum, respectively, and cocurators of the Sally Mann: A Thousand Crossings exhibition.