Sally Mann

This exhibition, A Matter of Time, presents nearly five decades of Mann’s work. Her subjects have ranged from her children and animals, her surroundings, the overarching concept of mortality, and the conflicted beauty of the deep South, to her intimate portraits of her husband, suffering from the ravages of a wasting muscle disease.

juxtaposing mortality and immortality

In her Self-Portrait [2012] she produces painterly and nearly abstract images, juxtaposing mortality and immortality. But, through all the subjects, Mann stays true to her theme, her quest of exploring the transitory nature of life.

Sally Mann was born in 1951 in Lexington Virginia. She grew up in an artistic and liberal family in the rural and religious South. Mann began photographing in high school and continued through college, where she earned a Masters in Creative Writing.

Sally Mann’s work has been influential since the time of her first solo exhibition, at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., in 1977.

In 1988 she published At Twelve: Portraits of Young Women, the study of the fragile transformation from childhood into adolescence in young girls. During the “Culture Wars” of the early 90’s in the U.S., Sally Mann’s next body of work, Immediate family (1984-1991) attracted some controversy among the religious right but was critically well received.

The exhibition A Matter of Time demonstrates Sally Mann’s persistence in creating images that may be local for her but at the same time address universal, global issues. Her themes present deep-seated contradictions, contradictions we often do not wish to acknowledge, but they do so with elegance and subtlety. Her gift is that she asks the big questions, and answers them with beauty.

Curators: Maria Patomella, Anette Skuggedal and Ellen K Willas

The exhibition is produced by Fotografiska in collaboration with the artist and Gagosian Gallery, New York.