Sian Ka'an 1999

Sally Mann made this photograph, Sian Ka'an, using gelatin silver. I love the way she embraces the accidents and imperfections inherent in the process. There is a softness and warmth to the image, it feels very intimate. The color palette here is muted. It reminds me of a faded memory. The way the light catches the edge of the dune in the foreground is incredible. It's almost as though the sun is bleeding into the landscape. The textures are soft and grainy, like sand between your fingers. There's a sense of depth despite the blur, a hazy dreamscape, the quality of Mann's images reminds me a little of early Impressionist painters, like Monet, who embraced a more subjective, sensory experience of the world. Ultimately, photography, like painting, is about seeing, feeling, and making marks that resonate with others. It’s about sharing a way of experiencing the world, knowing there's no single, right way to interpret what we see.