The Top Ten Photography Books on MY Shelf - #4

My choice for #4 steps away from my bookshelf again, and lands on my DVD rack.

#4 - What Remains: The Life and Work of Sally Mann - DVD

This 80 minute documentary film, directed by Steven Cantor, was released on DVD in April of 2008. Focusing on the period of Ms. Mann's life after Immediate Family, while she absorbs the success of that work, and struggles to put together her next body of work, all the while working her horse farm, being a mother to three children, and a wife to an ailing husband.

This film captures the essence of the artist, displaying her strength and her frailty, her pride and her insecurities, and her family life and thought process. This film is not for the squeamish or for the judgmental, but neither is Mann's work. Many of the images from Immediate Family are included and discussed in this film, and the new work from What Remains: The Life and Work of Sally Mann can sometimes be difficult to look at, but look at it we must, to gain perspective on our own existence, and lessen the fear of what is inevitable for all of us.