Photographer Sally Mann’s work has graced the walls of numerous galleries, museums, books and magazines, but the now-renowned artist was once told her work would never sell.
Mann’s new memoir, Art Work: On the Creative Life, places an intentional space in “artwork” and delves into the struggles and heartbreak that she has faced in her decades-long career. The memoir, which is illustrated with Mann’s photographs along with journal entries and letters, discusses the creative journey and dives into topics of rejection, passion, and hard work.
Mann recently sat down with CBS journalist Anthony Mason to discuss her new memoir. The interview – and tour of her wet plate collodion studio – offers glimpses into not only the memoir but also Mann’s insight into dealing with rejection, handling insecurities and channeling passion.
Listening to a renowned artist discuss the struggles of rejection and insecurity is a refreshing insight for any creative struggling with imposter syndrome and self-doubt.
“I believe artists should suffer,” Mann wrote in her new memoir. “Without character, you will have nothing to say.”
ABOVE: Watch Sally Mann discuss her work and memoir
Mann’s decades-long career wasn’t without her own share of struggles. In the interview, the artist recalls being told by an art director that her work was “too domestic” and would never sell, and recounted selling her first-ever print for $30 at a college coffee shop.
Mann’s “too domestic” work was key to the photographer’s success, but her work was far from an overnight success. Mann first worked as a photographer for a college in the 1970s, but it wasn’t until 1992 that she shared what many consider her breakthrough work.
Immediate Family, a collection of photographs of her children, received both praise for a thought-provoking look into the complexities of childhood emotions and criticism for sharing such intimate images of her children, who were often photographed nude.
Mann’s work is characterized by her glimpses of motherhood, childhood and southern landscapes. Yet, when Mason asked if she thought she ever needed to leave Virginia to have a successful career as a photographer, she said yes. Mann, however, never did stray far from her home, a decision that the artist believes meant it took longer for her career to really begin.
“I just stayed home and I made the work and I just made more work and I made more work and more work and pretty soon I had work that people couldn’t ignore.”
While Mann started with film, she continues to use the wet plate process, a medium more than a century old that helps give her photographs of home and landscapes a more painterly feel.
But while Mann uses a historic process, she shared that many of her most well-known photographs took several attempts, including Candy Cigarette, one of her most famous images of her daughter holding a candy cigarette. Choosing the right version, Mann says, is a gut decision.
“You just glance over at the work and you’ll get an absolutely perceptible gut flutter. You will feel which one is the right one. And that’s how I go by my gut always.”
Mann describes the feeling when all the pieces of a work fall into place as ecstatic, but only briefly so. “The minute you feel that cresting wave of ecstasy, your insecurities wash in and suck it all out again. It only lasts a minute.”
While Mann’s career had its series of ups and downs, her personal life wasn’t without struggles. Mann touched briefly on the loss of her son, who died at age 36. While she doesn’t specifically write about her loss, when asked if she believes the experience is in the book, which is dedicated to her son, she says yes.
“I think that you can tell the difference in people’s work who’ve had like a gash of pain go through their lives,” she said.
Mann says the one indispensable tool that an artist has to have is passion. “You can’t manufacture it, it has to come up from within you… All I know is that I can’t not do it, you know. I just take the pictures,” she said.
Mann’s new memoir, Art Work, is available now in hardcover and ebook formats.
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