Every parent photographs their children’s development, but it takes an artist to cause a controversy over it.

This photo is part of her Immediate Family series, Mann’s best known (and most controversial) body of work. See, the reception of this series was strongly divided; some extolled the stunning photos and praised the work for its palpable honesty, while others compared her work to the likes of child pornography. Many felt that selling naked pictures of ones children is blatant exploitation and the sign of an irresponsible parent. The Wall Street Journal even published a reproduction of the photo with Virginia’s eyes, nipples, and pubic region blacked out! As if that isn’t bad enough, as rumor has it, when young Virginia saw the censored photo of herself, she began touching herself in the blacked out areas and exclaimed to her mother “what’s wrong with me?” Now that’s just sad.  

But wait, it gets worse. People even threatened to press charges against Mann for selling child pornography, claiming that she should have her photos and equipment confiscated and her children seized for physical and psychiatric examination. Sad as this is, it makes you question what kind of porn these people are watching. Creeps. Nonetheless, luckily, Mann was never brought to court. Phew!

In my mind, nudity and childhood go together just like peanut butter and jelly, all of which were staples of mine. To me this photo seems completely natural, but perhaps that's easy for me to say since pretty much the only people who have seen my childhood photos are my parents and the few poor saps they show them to. Does the story change when they're hanging in a museum or gallery?

But the fact remains. People honestly think a mother taking pictures of her children is comparable to kiddie porn, and this reveals an interesting truth about art: intention does not always translate to reception. For Mann, these photos were the antithesis of sexual. In fact, she believes that the young nude girl personifies the true and pure individual, before society goes and sexualizes us and leaves us jaded. Considering we use titties to sell everything from hamburgers to cars nowadays, I can’t say she’s wrong.