Sally Mann A thousand crossings

More than 100 of Mann's photographs, including some previously unpublished, are gathered in this richly illustrated retrospective monograph, with accompanying essays from critics and academics. The work affirms Mann's reputation as one of the most influential and provocative photographers of the past several decades. Mann, an accomplished memoirist in both words (Hold Still) and images (Immediate Family), skillfully captures the essence of the American South, where she was born and still lives, with photos of Civil War battlefields and Baptist churches, Gothic landscapes and haunting portraits of black men identified only by first names. Mann began her career 40 years ago with intimate and sometimes controversial photos of her three children during their "free-range childhood," when they often romped naked at the family's Virginia farm; many of these photos are featured in the book. The most moving images are of her husband, Larry, his body deteriorating due to muscular dystrophy. In one of the essays, cultural critic Hilton Als writes that the portraits and landscapes of Mann's homeland with "its terrible history and epic natural beauty" require viewers to ask, "When will the South stop being the South?" This is an impressive companion to the National Gallery of Art's current exhibit of Mann's work, infused with memory, history, culture, identity, and race, and it serves as a fitting tribute to an artist with both an extraordinary mind and an exceptional eye. (Mar.) Copyright 2018 Publishers Weekly Annex.

Presents a first major career survey of the photographer who is known for her experimental, nostalgic and hauntingly beautiful photographs that, set in the American South, explore themes of memory, desire, death, the bonds of family, and nature’s imperious indifference to human endeavor. 20,000 first printing.

Short-listed for the Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards For more than 40 years, Sally Mann (b. 1951) has made experimental, elegiac, and hauntingly beautiful photographs that explore the overarching themes of existence: memory, desire, death, the bonds of family, and nature’s magisterial indifference to human endeavor. What unites this broad body of work—portraits, still lifes, landscapes, and other studies—is that it is all “bred of a place,” the American South. Mann, who is a native of Lexington, Virginia, uses her deep love of her homeland and her knowledge of its historically fraught heritage to ask powerful, provocative questions—about history, identity, race, and religion—that reverberate across geographic and national boundaries. Organized into five sections—Family, The Land, Last Measure, Abide with Me, and What Remains—and including many works not previously exhibited or published, Sally Mann: A Thousand Crossings is a sweeping overview of Mann’s artistic achievements.