Sian Ka'an 1999

Sally Mann made this photograph, Sian Ka'an, with a camera and film, of course! But I'm imagining the moment of exposure, the way the light just barely kisses the film. I feel like she’s showing us something so personal. Was she alone with the camera? I think so. Looking at this image, I can almost feel the warm, slightly humid air and that little ball of sun. I can see a tree trunk bending into the frame, and other plant life anchoring the land. And it makes me think about other photographers, like Emmet Gowin, who have also looked so lovingly at the land, and at their families. There's a way that artists are always speaking to each other across time, just trying to get at those fleeting moments. What I love about photography, and painting, is how they can hold those feelings of ambiguity, feelings that point in more than one direction, and feelings that never quite resolve.