I love love love Sally Mann! Sally Mann is one of the those artist you either love or you hate. I happen to love her! I love that she uses a 100-year-old camera to truly capture the white and black essence of film photography. She uses her surroundings as her subjects, such as her family, her home in Virginia and subjects that she is truly curious about. She took a lot of criticism with her first project “Immediate Family.” People called it child pornography or called her an irresponsible mother. I think she was just being a mother. Period. I have a four-year old of my own, and I take pictures of her doing everything, naked or clothed. These moments are priceless and children are innocent and simply don’t know the difference in which they find themselves. She put herself out there and exposed her family to the world. Thats a hard thing to do, because no matter what kind of artist you are, there is always going to be someone who doesn’t like your work.
More about her process… She used a 100 year old large format camera with a damaged lenses. The camera is so old that requires her to use her hand as a shutter. These photographs are marked with  scratches, light leaks, and shifts in focus that are part of the photographic process. In one interview, she says that she sometimes likes that, because it creates a different portrait than what you were really trying to capture. I don’t really have a specific reason why I like her, I just do. Sometimes you just don’t need a reason to like someone, you just do.
diBenedetto Photography 