Customer Reviews

At Twelve: Portraits of Young Women

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I give Sally Mann a thumbs up for capturing her beautiful children when they were young, being what they are: beloved children. How fast we grow and turn into adults!
As I studied each page my memory was jogged several times of my childhood in southern Georgia. Humid sunny days and muggy rainy evenings; I couldn't wait to strip what little bit of cloths I wore and play outside in the rain or in the woods. I never gave it a second thought being nude. And apparently neither did my parents. Needless to say Sally Mann and her beloved childern are dear to my heart. Thanks for bring back so many innocent fond memories.
I recommend this book if you have an open mind and love children for what they are.

Sally Mann has captured on film the vunerability of young women who do not yet fully comprehend the world they are born into. She exposes them as they are...immature...yet beginning TO mature. Fearless....yet fearful. The photographs in this book possess a haunting quality which stays with the reader long after the book has been put down.

This is one of my favorite portrait photography books. It's often profoundly disturbing, with such poignant images capturing girls on the verge of womanhood, offering us glimpses not only into the children that they were but into the lives they're going to lead as women, and it isn't all pretty.

Sally Mann is wonderful at capturing the souls of those she photographs, often poor, rural-living individuals, full of pride and hopes and dreams. I have collected many of her books, and this has always been my favorite. It's very controversial - her work always has been - but if you look at it with your eye on that cusp of womanhood, you will see more than you ever dreamed.

Sally Mann is a true visionary photographer who will certainly be hailed in the years to come as one of the greatest photographers of her time.

I found this book to be a wonderful experience. Sally Mann has shown so many different 12-year-olds in her hometown of Lexington, Va, and she has captured their stories and what makes each girl so unique. I loved this book and found that some of the photographs, especially "Doll House" reminded me of myself "At Twelve".

Mann has focused on a segment of our society that is often ignored, the 12 year old girl. This is especially important work in light of the fact that most girls suffer a dramatic loss of self esteem around the age of 12. More importantly, Mann's photographs reveal the intelligence, intensity, depth, and diversity in girls whom most regard as merely young and silly. Portraits, such as these that reveal so much about the subjects, are extremely interesting. Further, the fact that the subjects consist of a largely invisible segment of society makes the book groundbreaking. In honoring and respecting these girls as worthy subjects of fine art, Mann empowers all girls as well as the viewer.

I read all of the reviews before getting this book, and almost didn't buy it because of the negative feedback. I loved Immediate Family, as did many of the other reviewers, and feared that this book would not be as good - as indicated by many of the reviews. I ended up getting it, however, as it is a gift for my teen-age daughter who is an up and coming photographer. I figured that even if the other reviews were right - that the pictures were just images and not "artistic," or that the scenes were all wrong in a protect-your-children kind of way - then my daughter would still enjoy the book as a photographer with an eye for composition.
I am not one bit sorry that I bought the book. Yes, the photos are less "artistic" than Immediate Family, and yes, the book is more blunt in its subject matter, which makes it more painful and not as protective of the children. However, it absolutely captures being 12 and girl-woman - in all of the painful, stubborn, beautiful, childish, and grown-up ways that being 12 actually is.

Sally Mann is one of the most important photographers of the past decade. Her photographs evoke a profound experience of both a personal and a social psychology of the feminine. Her pictures include concerns about puberty and sexuality as well as motherhood and family. How does an artist describe what she truly loves without reducing the person to an aesthetic subject. How does a mother relate to her daughters without denying their autonomy and complexity. These questions are raised again and again in Mann's work. The photographs are muted, sad and beautiful.

an inner glimpse of the realm of femaletwelve year olds, of the 60's - 80's, on the cusp of leaving childhood. especially insightful when re-viewed, after reading the text!

At age twelve Anne Frank wrote, "Who would ever think that so much can go on in the soul of a young girl?" Frank was a young Jewish girl living in a time of war, facing the terror of Nazis and concentration camps, all the while trying to understand her growing body and preteen hormones. Of course we should understand the turmoil her soul was dealing with every day. But, what of young girls now? Surely they can't complain in comparison. Sally Mann would disagree.

In Rockbridge County, Virginia, where Mann spent her childhood, she captures the spirit of the only girl on the boy's team, the embarrassment of a new set of braces, as well as the tragedy of teen pregnancy, harassment, child neglect, and poverty. Alongside her black and white portraits, Mann tells the stories of these young women and her own personal experiences with them and their families. The feeling she has for her subjects is made clear in her photographs.

Above all, Sally Mann's book At Twelve portrays lovely, strong women. The lighting is often soft, but the focus is always direct. There are few sources of light that are diffused through a window or stream through some trees, always falling on the subject. Without inviting politics or bitterness into her photographs, Mann captures the difficult truth of growing up, a truth unchanged by time, or place, or background.

I found the technical aspect of this work to very pleasing. I don't find the composition itself to be as good Sturges, but all in all this is a nice piece of work. that being said, I do really like Sally Mann's work. This particular material was not as compelling to me as some of her other work.