Sally Mann’s work Immediate Family ties the two main factoring attributes of her own life into one project; being a mother and photography. With these two boundaries merged we, the viewer are able to gain an exclusive and personal insight in both her and her children’s life. The photos in this collection give a unique insight that many photographers have only ever envisioned, not only are the photos beautifully framed and shot there are also magnetically produced and enlarged.
After being ask to create an online blog, the purpose of which, was to be a of journey of discovery through the deconstruction of one of Mann’s images Emmett, Jessie, and Virginia, I was looking forward to investigating the image less as a solitary piece but to investigate the wider concepts and connotations surrounding the Immediate Family collection as a whole. And I doing this try and address the notion that whilst creating her work Mann may or not have had immoral intentions in the creating of the work and us of her children with the work.
There were many who objected to the publication of Immediate Family in 1992. They came from all social backgrounds varying from political figure heads, religious groups and simply concerned members of the public, they all feared for the welfare of Mann’s three children who at the time of the publication where not even teenagers. Understandable concerns as there were unable to fully understand the gravity of the images or the amount of people seeing the images. Yet I feel that after reading interviews with the siblings they all feel, especially Jessie Mann, that the images only help round them as individuals and for Jessie aloud here to gain a greater understanding of how are should be perceived at a reasonable young age. It has become apparent to me that the people that found the collection Immediate Family offensive, did simply not understand what Mann aimed to do with the images or where following a religious or political protocol as it were. A similar case was taken with Sturges work with children and family from the nudist community, but the clear difference between the two cases is that Mann was using her own children in her images betraying the trust and bond between mother and child; I think this is what, too many people was the factor that made Mann’s work so very disgusting. After reading and watching many interviews it seems to me Mann would never have wished to jeopardise any of her children’s life’s but instead felt it only right to included one part of her life she loved with another.
From gathering all of my research I feel that it is been proven time again that Mann, only ever created the collection Immediate Family to explore the bond between mother and child and not to exploit or degrade them. The main factor within Immediate Family is ‘love’ all the images I believe ever tried to truly illustrate, admittedly there are some other connotations within certain images, is a mother pride and love for her three children, doing so in the best way she knows how photography.
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