Sally Mann

I like taking pictures of people, especially those close to me, so I liked her theory on knowing what to photograph. Sometimes, I find it difficult to come up with ideas for projects and it is helpful to know that a successful photographer doesn't always have new ideas, but she photographs what she thinks is interesting. If I don't photograph what I want, then I will not take good pictures. If I don't find it interesting, then I cant't take an interesting picture of it. It was cool to see how her interests changed from her children to landscapes and then death. I wonder how my photographic interests will change in the future.

It was also comforting to hear that she feels anxiety about the end of a show and like it is impossible to start taking pictures again because she is worried they won't be as good. Sometimes, I feel like none of the pictures I am taking are any good or that I have run out of ideas. Her advice to start with one picture was very helpful. After I take one picture, it is difficult to put down the camera. If I just keep taking pictures, I will start to see more potential pictures and come up with ideas.

I found the idea that death can change a landscape to be interesting. Usually, when I look at a landscape, I just admire its beauty and I don't think about what has happened on it, unless it is a preserved historic place. When many human deaths have occured in one place, such as a battlefield, the meaning of the landscape changes. It is not just a a natural landscape, but becomes a part of history and a place of remembrance for the people who died. Her series on death conveyed the changes that death causes, both to the land and to the body. They were not just pictures of gross dead things, but they were a beautiful visual record of the processes that begin with death.