HOLD STILL

Where does the impulse to create come from What are the forces that shape an artist s work This ground breaking memoir a unique interplay of narrative and image charts the making of one of America s greatest artists As Sally Mann tells her story her work s preoccupation with family race mortality and the storied landscape of the American South is revealed as almost genetically predetermined written into her DNA by the family history that precedes her Sorting through boxes of family papers and yellowed photographs she finds more than she bargained for deceit and scandal alcohol domestic abuse car crashes bogeymen clandestine affairs dearly loved and disputed family land racial complications vast sums of money made and lost the return of the prodigal son and maybe even bloody murder In lyrical prose and startlingly revealing photographs she crafts a totally original form of personal history that has the page turning drama of a great novel but is firmly rooted in the fertile soil of her own experience This is the record of an artist s life and a meditation on place people family and the nature of creativity itself