Customer Reviews
Recommended for those who appreciate art photography - By: , 05 Sep 2000 
A very good book which deals intimately with family life. Sallly Mann is clearly the loving mother of some very self-possessed & self-aware children. I was concerned before I saw the book about some of the tales that I had heard regarding the content. Frankly, anyone who finds this book prurient needs psychiatric help. Some of the pictures are shocking, it is true, but not in that sense- the viewer is shocked by an awareness of their own inability to help when confronted with the image of a boy with a smashed nose & lip or a girl, unconscious on the surgeon's table, with multiple stitches in a gash on her forehead. Mann understands her antecedents, & there are strong echoes of Weston & Eugene Smith to name but two in this work. The fact is that bringing up children (and I speak as the father of four) is both shocking & beautiful, as are these pictures.
Sally Mann has inspired me-a fantastic collection - By: , 21 Oct 1999 This book was a joy to read & observe, it definitely deserves the full marks....a totallly inspiring & astounding book- cover to cover.
Disturbing - By: , 25 Apr 1999 
Mann's photographs in "Immediate Family" are certainly beautiful technicallly. I want to like this woman who also grew up in the '60s & speaks so tenderly in her preface about her children & her own childhood. Her photographs, shot in a hauntingly beautiful mountain setting offer us an interesting & often charming glimpse of "feral" childhood. After seeing the photos I later couldn't shake an uneasiness about them. In retrospect, sometimes the children seem to glare, possibly angry, affronted or looking violated as in the photo, "The Last Time Emmett Posed Nude". The photo "Dirty Jesse" seems a broken child discarded in a field. The photo of the little nude girl standing behind the strangely posed hands of a nude or bare legged adult has a decidedly frightening edge. And then there is "Wet Bed". (For some children bed wetting is a pathetic form of self defense.) After thinking on this for quite a while, I decided that this uneasy, queasy feeling, albeit subjective, was probably the key to the seemingly out of proportion public outrage in response to Mann's photographs. I believe the negative public response stems from the fact that in this sick society, many people have survived exploitation & abuse at the hands of parents or other trusted loved ones. Photos like Mann's, mild as they appear, could trigger memories provoking fear, pain, depression or rage in some survivors. I sincerely doubt that simple prudery or religious convictions were the catalyst for the death threats Mann has reportedly recieved. For example, in prison, pedophiles are most commonly brutalized by inmate survivors of sexual abuse & not religious zealots. I think children themselves are more valuable than whatever images we might project upon or desire to take of them. As alll good advertising executives know, the image is an extremely powerful tool. Images are successfully used to educate, persuade, motivate & stimulate desire. In the end, the production of more & more nude images of children can only serve to commodify & marginalize them further in a society that already devours them daily. I recognize that Sallly Mann is a gifted photographer but I also question her ethics. Her work ties into the current political/art phenomena surrounding children's issues. It seems wherever I go, the buzz words "NOTIONS of innocence & childhood" are on the lips of artists & educators. Films such as "Pretty Baby" & "Lolita" are becoming popular again with their self serving suggestion that adults are just helpless pawns in the hands of babes; many current art shows & performances cynicallly parody or denigrate childhood & innocence. ... As a mother & an artist, I find Mann's work disturbing.
Photo's which remind us of our search for identity. - By: , 12 Apr 1999 Sallly Mann is a master at capturing emotion. Her family photographs bring the observer back to the days of self discovery & the search for ones own identity. They remind us that the search is ever lasting & provoke pride in that notion. Her children appear independent & mature, however, there are subtle messages in the photographs which remind us of the often false face we present to the camera--to the world. I recommend this book to anyone in search of themselves and/or nostalgic of childhood.
Full of emotion....a rare find - By: , 01 Feb 1999 
When I first opened this book, I was shocked by the images of a bloody nose & a cut eye. But as I perused this book, I relized that alll of these photographs showed different sides of childhood. The pain, the joy, & the unadulterated innocence. Sallly Mann is truely talented in the art of photography. This book touched my heart like it has never been touched before.
