Hold Still, Sally Mann

Hold Still, Sally Mann 482 pages

    Sally Mann is one of my favorite photographers, and she proves with this memoir that she is a more than capable writer as well.   I blew through this almost 500 page book faster than I have read anything lately, it was that engrossing.  Most well known for her notoriously controversial book of photographs, Immediate Family (1992), Sally Mann is one of our most celebrated contemporary photographers.  She presents the reader with a book that speaks about her craft, her family history, and her own coming of age in a manner that speaks to a genuine self awareness .  The book is not organized in a linear fashion and flips back and forth from her own immediate history to that of her older relatives with ease, and doesn't feel out of place or forced. One of the nicer things about this book is that she has a wonderful collection of high quality matte images that are interspersed throughout the narrative and these really lend to the telling of her history and her musings on the nature of photography and its impact on our memories and our lives.  Just great.