Some call Sally Mann's work insensitive, I call it the pursuit of honesty.

Yes, Sally Mann has been known to push buttons, but at least you can’t knock her for being phony.

Mann may be a small town girl from rural Virginia, but she has had nothing less than a huge impact on the photography world. Ranging from child pornography allegations to being dubbed “America’s best photographer” by Time magazine, Mann has experienced all the highs and lows that come with the territory of being in the spotlight.  

There seem to be no limits to what Mann will photograph. From bed-wettings to bloody injuries and decomposing bodies, Mann is willing to capture it all. She even watched her son get hit by a car, and claims all she could think about was how to immortalize this moment of raw pain with a photo. Luckily her maternal instincts kicked in and she dropped the camera and came to the rescue instead, but moments like this make her commitment to the art form seems a little overzealous.  

But as they say, if you aren’t passionate about what you do, why do it? There is no lack of passion on Mann’s end. Mann’s fixation with photography developed when she utilized the darkroom at her college as a private meeting place for her and her boyfriend to “hang out." Perhaps eventually feeling the desire to use the darkroom for its actual purpose, Mann quickly became utterly obsessed with photography. Furthermore, we can only speculate that this is where her interests for nudity and photography were fused together.

Haters gonna hate, and Sally Mann is no stranger to it. It seems that no matter what she photographs, people always find a way of twisting her work around and pinning her as a money hungry, insensitive woman who is willing to exploit the innocent and vulnerable. An interesting accusation since Mann lives the humble life of a salt of the earth farmer.

I like to think of Mann as a misunderstood martyr on the pursuit to capture the authentic intricacies of life. I mean, its better than thinking she's a porn-peddler, so lets stick with the "sincere artist" for now.