I first listened to Sally Mann narrating her book Hold Still simultaneously perusing the photographs in the book. Some may prefer to read and look a hI first listened to Sally Mann narrating her book Hold Still simultaneously perusing the photographs in the book. Some may prefer to read and look a hard copy, but I liked listening to Sally Mann’s voice telling her story to me. The vibes were like those I found from Patti Smith’s Just Kids, but more authentic, if not personal? Artistic memoirs of a time and place more fictional to me than the United States as shown with its media itself. I didn’t listen to Patti Smith with the kind of context required for these kinds of books I suppose. For here in Hold Still, the setting is a place I can tangibly grasp. If not for COVID-19, I might even have tried to travel around from my spot in Virginia over to Rockbridge County. Visit what has been romanticized from Mann’s words to my memories of the place; its sunsets, the idyllic pretty brick houses giving way to quintessential Southern houses surrounded by larger swaths of land which I now understand to be farming grounds. ... [image] [image] [image] [image] [image] [image] [image] [image]
Here are some of my favorites. One of the most captivating pieces in the book was a heavily annotated letter from Dr. Mungner to Sally Mann. The content of the letter is shorter than all its footnotes.
I practice the slow looking details for observing and contemplating the photographs. What captures your attention first? Where do your eyes rest? What do you notice?