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A review by bernrr
Hold Still: A Memoir with Photographs by Sally Mann
4.0
The writing is great. To the point that it seems a little unfair that Sally Mann can be so talented in two very different media. (But she let's slip somewhere in the text that she has an MFA in Creative Writing, so you know she put the work in.)
She addresses, early and head-on, the controversies around her body of work "Immediate Family," and I was impressed with her courage, if not convinced by her reasoning. As process, you often see the photographs as singular moments, candid, her children caught in the act of being children. Actually, she details the making of one in particular, that she shot over again in a long succession of days until it looked just right. The images in the series are powerful and well-crafted works of art, but my lingering question is more about informed consent--can you have informed consent if the photographer is your mother? Do you have the imagination and experience to imagine yourself 10 years older, knowing these photographs are in the public sphere?
To Mann's credit, she is unflinching in reporting the angles, but believes she had informed consent, and backs this belief with compelling arguments (that I won't detail). She also believes children to be wiser and more devious and more complex than adults usually want to acknowledge--and searching my own memory this is true.
If this were all to the book, it would be interesting, but she goes deep into family history to examine her roots, and the energy is unflagging most of the way, illustrated by photos, both her own and from her archives. It gives the reader both the mind of the artist, and the validation of my own memories that kept bubbling up and competing for brain-space. Plus some good storytelling.
She addresses, early and head-on, the controversies around her body of work "Immediate Family," and I was impressed with her courage, if not convinced by her reasoning. As process, you often see the photographs as singular moments, candid, her children caught in the act of being children. Actually, she details the making of one in particular, that she shot over again in a long succession of days until it looked just right. The images in the series are powerful and well-crafted works of art, but my lingering question is more about informed consent--can you have informed consent if the photographer is your mother? Do you have the imagination and experience to imagine yourself 10 years older, knowing these photographs are in the public sphere?
To Mann's credit, she is unflinching in reporting the angles, but believes she had informed consent, and backs this belief with compelling arguments (that I won't detail). She also believes children to be wiser and more devious and more complex than adults usually want to acknowledge--and searching my own memory this is true.
If this were all to the book, it would be interesting, but she goes deep into family history to examine her roots, and the energy is unflagging most of the way, illustrated by photos, both her own and from her archives. It gives the reader both the mind of the artist, and the validation of my own memories that kept bubbling up and competing for brain-space. Plus some good storytelling.