Immediate Family: Sally Mann

Soooo much fun. I love getting lost in the stacks..almost as much as i like the looks i receive as i sit in a pile of books with my ipod, cup of tea, and my backpack, i think all i'm missing is a tent.
I looked through quite a few books and was just about to settle, when I found photographs by Sally Mann. I think it was the first picture in the book that grabbed me, (unfortunately I couldn't find that one to post, but its called blowing bubbles) It's of two little girls playing on a deck and the expression on the the face of the girl facing the camera is priceless. There is something so dreamlike about this photograph. Perhaps because it reminds me so much of my my older sister and me when we were younger. The older sister is wearing a beautiful tutu, blowing bubbles, very princess like (and exatly how my sister was). and then there is the younger one, who faces the camera, cute, but in a laughably scary sort of way. She's wearing ugly overalls and stands awkwardly, while her older sister faces away, completely consumed in her fairlytale of a world. The girl facing the camera however stares at it, as if to challenge it, challenge the situation, challenge life..she somehow seems to know what's going on. I laughed really hard when I saw this scene.
I like these photographs because I think children are really interesting subjects, not because they are cute (overly cute pictures of children make me sort of sick) but because Sally photographs them in a really different manner. I think kids are often underestimated, and truly have a lot more going on then we give them credit for. Cute photos seem condescending, as if to say that that is all they can offer, some adorable, but childish image. The children in Mann's photos have very intense exressions on their faces, there is a sense of confidence, challenge, a sense of power and strength. Some are quite eerie, but they are provocative and therefore quite interesting.