Sally Mann’s Multi-Generation Retrospective

Over the past forty years, Virginia native and American photographer, Sally Mann (Born 1951), has collected work for her newest exhibit titled, A Thousand Crossings. Ending its six-city tour, the collection will be on view at the High Museum of Modern Art until Feb. 2020. The show opened on Oct. 19th.
This is not Mann’s first time working with the High. In fact, in 1996, Mann inaugurated the High’s “Picturing the South” photography series. Mann’s relationship and life with the American South consistently appears as a tone in all her works.
This specific exhibit, A Thousand Crossings, is a retrospective — pulling from many of Mann’s collections from the past four decades. According to an interview between the Atlanta Journal Constitution and the show’s co-curator Sarah Kennel, 53 out of the show’s 116 photographs have never been seen before.
“The High doesn’t always get the greatest shows but knowing that there are images from Sally Mann that I haven’t seen yet is pretty exciting”, Holly Whites, an Atlanta native and photographer, explains. She has not seen the show yet but has been waiting eagerly for a free weekend to go.
“Mann is really good at showing relationships and captures really vivid images, I admire her ability to give meaning to so much of her work” says Whites. “It makes me want to push myself and my work, too”.
The exhibit is filled with a wide array of photos- some in color, black & white, big, small, film, and digital. Divided into two floors and a theater, the exhibition winds through images of significant people, scenery, and moments in Mann’s life. Broken down into sections, Mann creates a collection of her memories, encapsulated.
“Mann is often known for her controversial work that is more about her kids,” says Madeleine Solloway, an Atlanta artist, “ but this retrospective covers more than just that- it’s the people around her, important moments and places, it’s really about her; what she sees.”
The show delves into Mann’s personal thoughts and intimate experiences. Mann pulls us into her relationship with her husband in the show’s section, Proud Flesh, documenting growing older by photographing her husband’s injuries.

Mann explores aging, death, and mortality more in a section of the exhibit titled, What Remains. The section includes another series of images of her ill and aging husband from the mid 2000s and a collection of self-portraits displaying her thinning limbs — commenting on her own mortality.
She also touches on pressing topics in the south including racial segregation amongst men in the American South. In the exhibit’s sub- collet ion titled, Men, Mann shines light on racial exploitation, stereotyping, and slavery.
A Thousand Crossings also profiles the woman who raised Mann in the section Virginia “Gee-Gee” Carter. Mann looks back on her relationship with Carter, profiling her with more than just images. This collection also includes handwritten notes from Carter herself.

“The show is unique because it is a lot of different work from separate collections”, says Alex Hawkins, an Atlanta sculptor, and High Museum member, “Mann really hand-picked, and curated, all of these with a reason in mind”.
“I think I like Mann’s work more when it is in a solo collection, not a retrospective, also I expected her work to be presented on a larger scale”, Hawkins continues.
Mann’s work in this show surprised some of its viewers with such a wide array of variety of styles. “I was not really expecting such a juxtaposition between the color and sizes of the pieces”, Hawkins explains.
There is plenty of time to view this exhibit, but if you miss it there will also be an upcoming Sally Mann show coming to the High Museum in 2021, yet another retrospective focusing on her more personal life.
