Sally Mann: What Remains

What struck me the most about Sally Mann's work was how she sees the world through her camera.  She likes to capture things in the moment, like photographing her children.  The different kind of things her children did really struck her and she would immediately capture their movement with her camera.   She believes that taking pictures is part of a heritage.  My favorite comment she made about photography was "the things that are close to you are the things you photograph."  When she said that, I thought about my childhood and how my parents, especially my late father, took pictures of my brother and I since birth and kept them in albums.  I have always considered an album as a keepsake of memories.  I see that in Sally Mann's photos of her children.  Sally Mann's discussion about doing self portraits was interesting to me because she is doing something totally different from her normal routine in taking photographs.  Throughout the documentary, I noticed how she loves to move around a lot, especially around a subject she is about to photograph.  When doing a self portrait of herself, she has to sit still for so long, which is the opposite of movement.  I thought about how I enjoy movement myself and I know it would be hard to still for a self portrait.  In all, Sally Mann approaches photography by seeing the world through a camera and taking photos of things that are close to her.