Sally Mann: American Photographer #3

3. The Land

Sally Mann is wondering if the land where she was born holds memories of the past. She’s thinking about places where terrible events like massacres have happened, and she’s asking if those places somehow communicate those memories. If they do, she’s curious about how they might “speak” to us as humans. She’s also contemplating whether there’s a special and sacred connection with death in these locations, even if they seem peaceful now.

Mann’s connection with the land has influenced her photography. The history of the South, which is both a place of home and a place of tragedy, a place of safety and conflict, still plays a significant role in defining what it means to be American.

She first took pictures of the hills, rivers, and forests near her home, and these photos reflect a deep sense of connection and familiarity. Because photographs are reflections and consequences of years of observation and contemplation.

In the 1990s, she ventured further south (Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi). Her photos primarily allude to the national history of war, death, suffering, and injustice. She aimed to show how the southern lands have retained the scars of the past.

Mann always presents herself as a Southern artist. Southerners live in a kind of mix between stories (myth) and a tough reality. They experience a sad combination of sorrow, modesty, dignity, kindness, and strong resistance.