Immediate Family

Mann’s subjects are her small children (a boy, a girl and a new baby), often shot when they’re sick or hurt or just naked. Nosebleeds, cuts, hives, chicken pox, swollen eyes, vomiting–the usual trials of childhood–can be alarmingly beautiful, thrillingly sensual moments in Mann’s portrait album. Her ambivalence about motherhood–her delight and despair–pushes Mann to delve deeper into the steaming mess of family life than most of us are willing to go. What she comes up with is astonishing. –Vince Aletti, The Village Voice