Penny W. Stamps Speaker Series: Sally Mann

The University of Michigan School of Art and Design puts on a speaker series every Thursday night for free at the Michigan Theater in downtown Ann Arbor. They range in topics and people from photographers, to designers, to film directors, and so much more. Today the speaker was Sally Mann. For those of you who don't know who Sally Mann is, she is a pioneer in the photography industry (Sally Mann's website bio). I remember learning about her in my History of Photography class, so it was surreal to be able to hear her talk. I don't know about anyone else, but if someone is in a history book, I feel like they're typically unattainable; one because usually it was so long ago that they're deceased or two because they're just so famous that why would they bother with coming to such a small town when there's plenty of bigger cities to speak at. So when I heard that she was coming to Ann Arbor and I could see her for free, I jumped on the chance to do so.

While they were introducing her, they had talked about just how hard it was to get her to come and talk, they had been asking her for six years!! And she didn't turn them down because she was too high and mighty, she turned them down because she had too many things going on at home to be able to leave. She declined once because it was winter in Michigan (she's from Virginia) and she had too many animals to tend to, to be able to leave. That's awesome!

From the moment she stepped on stage it was almost magical. I immediately got goosebumps and a huge smile from ear to ear. I probably looked like a 12 yr old meeting Justin Bieber hahaha. Sally just has a presence about her, she's incredibly intelligent and humble. She spoke about the portrait series she's working on at the moment and read an excerpt from her upcoming book If Memory Serves (working title). It was great to hear her own doubts in her work and how she overcomes that. You think with being as recognized for her skill as she is, that she would be confident in her photography, but she second guesses herself just like any other artist out there.

Afterward there was a short Q&A. People asked what she printed her new series on and she still uses film. And then someone asked what she thought of the digital age. Her answer was awesome for this, she prints using a glass negative and accidentally dropped one of them, she scanned it and had her assistant stitch it back together, then sent it off to have a new negative made! So Sally said that it's great to have those options around because in the past it would just be ruined and there would be nothing she could do to save it. Then she went in the hall to sign books. Unfortunately, the girl in front of me in line bought the last one of Sally's books for sale, so I didn't have anything exciting for her to sign, but I had on of my business cards with me and she signed that; which I still think is cool regardless of what it is. Here's a crappy webcam photo of me with my Sally Mann autograph.

For a list of upcoming guests from the Penny W. Stamps Speaker Series, click here.