In traditional photography, the child is viewed by a man or a woman who transfers to him an adult thought. Few artists are actually interested in expressing the true personality of a child. Diane Arbus succeeded by disturbing her young models. Sally Mann establishes a complicity which is an opposite to Diane.
Mrs Mann is not a conventional mum. By offering to her own children a freedom to make decisions for their own actions, she becomes an observer of their psychology and of their passage at puberty. They choose their plays, take off their clothes when it pleases them, and even are entitled to refuse the images that their mother made of them.
On October 15 in New York, Swann Auction Galleries sells Candy cigarette, lot 341 estimated $ 100K. This artist's proof 50 x 60 cm in black and white was printed in 1989 for an exhibition. The negative was earlier.
Jessie is in the garden, in a white dress coquettishly baring the shoulders. She is still a little girl far from adolescence but she wants to look like a star with her thick blond hair. She holds a candy cigarette as if she were to smoke it, and despite the confidence in her mother her gaze reveals that she doubts if her provocation is reasonable.
Sally Mann uses the focusing to add to the ambiance. Next to Jessie, her younger sister looks at the opposite side, completely losing interest in this scene that already escapes childhood.
SOLD for $ 215K including premium
Sally Mann's "Candy Cigarette" hammers down at $175,000. #sallymann http://t.co/I2WSOJcRi4 pic.twitter.com/iX6tYtq6MK
— Swann Galleries (@SwannGalleries) October 15, 2015