CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 7/10/2015

Sally Mann: Immediate Family

In the April 16 issue of the New York Times Magazine, photographer Sally Mann contributed an autobiographical piece adapted from her new memoir. It begins, "In September 1992, I published my third book of photographs, Immediate Family. The book contained 60 photographs from a decade-long series of more than 200 pictures of my children, Emmett, Jessie and Virginia, who were about 6, 4 and 1 when I started the project. The photographs show them going about their lives, sometimes without clothing, on our farm tucked into the Virginia hills. For miles in all directions, there was not a breathing soul. When we were on the farm, we were isolated, not just by geography but by the primitive living conditions: no electricity, no running water and, of course, no computer, no phone. Out of a conviction that my lens should remain open to the full scope of their childhood, and with the willing, creative participation of everyone involved, I photographed their triumphs, confusion, harmony and isolation, as well as the hardships that tend to befall children — bruises, vomit, bloody noses, wet beds — all of it." The Hot Dog (1989) is reproduced from Immediate Family, newly reissued by Aperture.