Sally Mann is one of the greatest photographers this earth has come to know. She has captured beauty in death, innocence in nudity, and has challenged people to trust rather than fear. With numerous awards for her breathtaking photos and books she's successfully inspired, shocked, and turned the heads of people in both awe and disgust. Her "Immediate Family" book featured photos of her family, mainly her children, in their everyday life. Many of these photos contained the children without any clothes becoming a controversy to some. To me, it was pure beauty and inspiration. The photos below come from that book and can't be denied the brilliance in concept and technicality. They are just gorgeous.
Here is a video of an interview from 2003 with Sally Mann discussing her book "What Remains" which is filled with photos of decomposing canine and human bodies; the canine being her beloved dog Eva and the bodies being corpses donated to a forensic research center.
As in the video, Sally Mann dedicated this book "To My Father, Unafraid." She also talks about how death is unmentionable in society and how it used to be sex, but death is now the last taboo. Honesty. Honesty in death and sex and life is what sets Sally Mann apart. Isn't it our responsibility as artists to do all we can to understand life, the good and the bad, and then to tell the truth we come to discover? You decide.
