….all of us have the experience and the memory of childhood……….many of us are fortunate to follow the path of our children…… in the realm of that fact……it is astonishing that we still are in awe that our children seek acknowledgment for their needs to be seen, heard, understood, and respected–how fast we forget the yearning of being strong, being adventurous, inquisitively naive…. the need to play out the fantasies of life through ones young innocence…….where the notion of “growing-up” involves the realization of Descartes famous words…..”I think, therefore I am”…..but do YOU exist? ……
…sally mann has over a long period meet her children through the lens… why do these meetings intrigue us so?… the photographer and her photographs have been sued & censored…one image of her 4-year-old daughter (Virginia at 4 was censored by the [[Wall Street Journal]]with black bars over her eyes, nipples and pubic area.’’The Wall Street Journal’’, February 6, 1991. “Critique: Censoring Virginia,” By Ray Sokolov, p A10. ....a censorship that brought more focus to the importance of this work..
..in her book the immediate family she places the paradox of seeing the beauty as we see the dark side of life..quoting the Japanese saying; mono no aware//beauty tinged with sadness, as the essence of our existence…..where the past and the future play their roles as we find her children in the mist of the innocence….of the present..
… in my view the essence of innocence plays a dance upon the existence of our humanity, our sexuality, our mere nature of being close…..and our inability to portray it….with all its strengths and its fears….& beauty… sally mann’s work has created a paradigm shift in our time…..
