The celebrated US photographer was catapulted into America’s culture wars with her photobook Immediate Family. Now she’s written a book of ‘how not-to’ advice for artists
S
ally Mann is chatty and open about nearly any subject imaginable. The photographer easily gets carried off in conversation, finding it hard to resist sharing stories about anything from her friend’s mother who had a lobotomy, to the time the poet Forrest Gander happened to drop by unannounced (the moment turned into a lifelong friendship).
A large-format camera at Sally Mann’s Lexington studio; tools and objects on a workbench; mask of a face
Her disarming trust belies her 74 years on this planet – and brief moment at the centre of a culture wars storm, which we’ll get to later. Via video call from her beloved farm in Lexington, Virginia, she’s gabbing with me as if we are long-lost friends, breezily dropping one-liners and only occasionally invoking an internal censor that tends to arrive a little too late. All this energy services a profound curiosity, an intense work ethic and a meagre capacity for sitting still that has seen her declared one of the most influential photographers working today.
