There's always a time in any series of work where you get to a certain point and your work is going steadily and each picture is better than the next, and then you sort of level off and that's when you realize that it's not that each picture is better then the next, it's that each picture up's the ante. And that every time you take one good picture, the next one has got to be better.
Sally MannLike all photographers, I depend on serendipity I pray for what might be referred to as the angel of chance.
Sally MannThe fact is that these are not my children; they are figures on silvery paper slivered out of time. They represent my children at a fraction of a second on one particular afternoon with infinite variables of light, expression, posture, muscle tension, mood, wind and shade. These are not my children at all; these are children in a photograph.
Sally MannSometimes I think the only memories I have are those that Iโve created around photographs of me as a child. Maybe Iโm creating my own life. I distrust any memories I do have. They may be fictions, too.
Sally MannLike all photographers, I depend on serendipity, and when you're photographing children there's often an abundance of it. I would have an idea of what a photograph would look like and then something would happen - a dog might lumber in and become a critical element. I pray for what might be referred to as the angel of chance.
Sally Mann