Sally Mann was named America’s Best Photographer in 2001 by Time magazine. She is most well known for her black-and-white photographs—at first of her young children, then later of landscapes suggesting decay and death. She has published a controversial collection of images of her family entitled Immediate Family. Her works are included in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and the Whitney Museum of New York City among many others. Sally Mann’s piece entitled Candy Cigarette challenges the viewer’s natural and raw state of mind versus their politically correct state of mind.

To any random viewer in the street, Candy Cigarette automatically raises red flags. Jessie, age ten at the time, is Mann’s eldest daughter who is depicted in the image defiant and self-aware, staring straight down the lens at her mother with an air of confidence. She is slightly slouched and unlike the other two figures in the image, is facing away from the road that they are traveling down. One figure is walking on stilts while the other is looking at him with disapproving body language. They are traveling down a quite gravel road while Jessie is firmly planted away from the others. While looking quite mature Jessie seems to know that she wants a different life than the others. It is as if she is facing away from the social norm while the cigarette is adding retaliation to her image. Some interpret the cigarette as her own personal rebellion while others interpret it as a lack of a role model in the girls’ life. Either way the viewer pictures the girl going down what society would consider the ‘wrong’ path.

While Sally Mann has been known to ruffle a few feathers with her images, she always has a reason to be doing it. Mann is trying to make persons viewing this image realize how quickly kids want to grow up and mature. There is a strong danger of childhood innocence that rapidly lessens every year as children become more aware and in-tune with the world around the,m. Every human being is born with an unbiased, innocent, and pure state of mind, however, as society becomes more problematic and apparent to children, the innocence and purity begin to deteriorate and conform to the social standards and stereotypes that exist all around us. During youth we do not pay attention to skin color, clothes, social status, or money; As one gets older they see the differences between wealthy and poor, black and white, popular and uncool. People start to judge based on stereotypes and preconceived ideas rather than what they actually want to believe.

An adult world faces the problem of experiencing this world and everything in it through a politically correct state of mind. People look at Mann’s art work and see pornography, not the innocence and purity of children making up the beautful works of art; they look at Candy Cigarette and only see the girl’s young age and the cigarette. People don’t see the defiance, taboo portrayal of a young person’s dilemmas that they face growing up in America today. “Do I want to follow the path that my parents, family, and society find acceptable and the only way? Or can I try and find my own way through life? Can I try new things and figure out who I want to be in life the way that I want too?” Every teenager is faced with these questions along with countless others every day of their lives. Every young person needs to be able to try new things and figure out who they want to be on their own terms, even if that includes breaking the social norm, it is healthy to desire.

Sally Mann has always been an artist to push limits in order to make a statement. She prides herself on portraying everyday lives while also portraying everyday problems. While Sally Mann is considered one of the greatest photographers in the twentieth century, Candy Cigarette is also one of the most talked about pieces of art in the in twentieth century. Have you ever seen a more true representation of society’s stereotypes challenging childhood innocence? Next time you see something out of the ordinary try and think to yourself, ‘What state of mind am I in?’ and see if that causes any differences occur.

Hoping I challenged your mind a bit,
Mass.