Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco is pleased to announce its first solo exhibition by renowned American photographer Sally Mann. The exhibition features intimate black and white silver gelatin prints of the American South that highlight childhood and the growth of Mann’s three children Emmett, Jessie, and Virginia from her acclaimed series Immediate Family (1992) and At 12: Portraits of Young Women (1988). The show runs from May 5 to July 9, 2016 with an opening reception on Thursday, May 5, 5:30 to 7:30. Running concurrently with Sally Mann is Portraiture: A Group Photography Exhibition that features ethnically diverse and world-renowned artists, whose portraits reflect their personal and cultural identity, while also utilizing paint, props, pattern, and the lack thereof to emphasize their subject.
Photographed over a 10 year period, the series Immediate Family traces Mann’s children, Emmett, Jessie, and Virginia, as they grow from childhood into adolescence. The series began in 1984 when Mann’s daughter Jessie returned home with a gnat-bitten, swollen face; the following day Mann photographed her reclining, her bright form wrapped in dark fabric, depicted in the image Jessie. Becoming a mother of three within the span of five years, Mann found inspiration and accessibility in using her children as her models, photographing them on the family’s rural Virginia property, where Mann was also born and raised. “It's always been my philosophy to try to make art out of the everyday and ordinary... it never occurred to me to leave home to make art.” Similar to many female artists throughout history, including Impressionist painter Berthe Morisot, who also utilized her daughter as a model, the compromise between domestic responsibility and creative practice often influences subject matter.