The Beautiful and the Damned

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about my very favorite photographer, Sally Mann.  I was so obsessed with her in college that I wrote my thesis (which was a collection of poems) in response to her work . . . which meant I spent a lot of time with her photographs.  Sally Mann is a Virginia photographer whose evocative (and arguably, provocative) work is steeped in the South, and challenges traditional notions of privacy and propriety.

Night Blooming Cereus

Night Blooming Cereus might be my favorite of hers, though I definitely think that Mann's work is best taken in as an entire body (and not just as individual photographs).  She is best known for her haunting, beautiful, black & white images of her three children, who are often nude and photographed at their home or in nature surrounding their woodsy home.

Candy Cigarette

Untitled

(reminds me of Juliet)

Gorjus

Sunday Funnies

And this last one is from her book At Twelve, which explores girls in her town on the brink of womanhood, in that delicate balance between childhood and sexuality.  The photos in this collection are so eerie and so gorgeous, and perhaps speak more about the viewer's interpretation than the subject's intent:

Untitled, from At Twelve

Although Sally Mann's work is controversial--and there are many who virulently condemn her photographs as "child pornography"--I think she's fearless and brave and that her art is exquisite (google "Popsicle Drips" for an example of her more provocative work).

And now in weird news . . . 

Justin Bieber is now aka "Shawty Mane" and has released a rap video.  

And I'm not kidding.