Sally Mann: At Twelve: Portraits of Young Women

This new edition of Sally Mann’s At Twelve: Portraits of Young Women—first published by Aperture in 1988—offers a revealing collective depiction of American girls on the verge of adulthood. An introduction by novelist and short story writer Ann Beattie and a prologue by Mann are followed by reproductions of the artist’s richly tonal large-format black-and-white photographs, some of which are paired with her own evocative short texts. Taken in Mann’s hometown of Lexington, Virginia, the images capture the excitement and possibility of adolescence as well as its contradictions and pitfalls, creating a record of complicated lives with unflinching honesty and grace.

This reissue of At Twelve was printed using new scans and separations from Mann’s prints, which were taken with an 8-by-10-inch view camera, rendering them with a freshness and sumptuousness true to the originals.