Modest Child #2
A hauntingly intimate gelatin silver print by Sally Mann, *Modest Child #2* exemplifies her signature exploration of childhood, vulnerability, and the complex intersection of innocence and awareness. The rich tonal contrasts characteristic of Mann's darkroom mastery lend the image a timeless, dreamlike quality that blurs the boundary between the idyllic and the unsettling. As part of her deeply personal body of work, the photograph invites viewers to confront their own perceptions of youth, privacy, and the fleeting nature of childhood.
- Medium
- Gelatin silver print.
- Location
- Phillips, Salt Lake City, UT
- Spotted At
- Auction House · PhillipsView on map
🔨 Auction Lot
Photographs
October 4, 2018
Artists in conversation
Emmet Gowin
American · b. 1941
Gowin similarly photographed his own family and children in intimate, deeply personal black and white prints that balance tenderness with psychological complexity, capturing a sense of timeless vulnerability rooted in rural Southern American life.
Judith Joy Ross
American · b. 1946
Ross works in gelatin silver print with a documentary yet deeply humanistic approach to portraying young subjects, achieving similarly haunting tonal richness and emotional intimacy that probes the inner worlds of children and adolescents.
Ralph Eugene Meatyard
American · b. 1925
Meatyard photographed children and family members in eerily dreamlike black and white compositions suffused with a Southern Gothic sensibility, creating work that similarly unsettles the boundary between innocence and something darker and more psychologically charged.
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