Sally Mann-Untitled # 30

The photo I chose was from Sally Mann and some of her landscape work. This particular piece is called “untitled # 30” taken in 1998. It’s a tea-toned gelatin silver print of a swamp with various tree branches and fog. The black and white photograph was taken from the “deep south” series, which included a number of other landscape photographs. I really liked this photograph because of the serenity and “pure-ness” that surrounds it. Everything is so still and clean in the photograph, that it’s almost hard to tell what it is. Also, the process behind creating the large format photograph is really inspirational. The process is long and difficult and to create such beautiful images really takes time and patience, which you can really see within the photograph. The tonal value behind the work is also really beautiful and has a lot of strong essence to it, which to me gives it a lot of meaning. The photo almost looks like a dream-like landscape; you can even see the vignetting around the top edges, which almost gives the illusion that the viewer is actually there, viewing this foggy landscape in person. Regardless of the fact that it’s just a photograph of a swamp, I really enjoy it. It’s almost nostalgic in a way, which can draw any person into the photograph.