Art work On the creative life

Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

This winsome memoir from photographer Mann (Remembered Light) offers practical guidance for artists. Peppered with anecdotes from a lifetime of professional wins and losses, Mann's advice is both conventional ("If it were easy, everyone would be doing it") and unexpected ("I pragmatically decided that insecurity... could be my friend"). Excerpts from journals and letters shed light on life events and preoccupations that inspired Mann's work, and dispel the myth that "when not making art, they are drinking absinthe with friends and vacationing on St. Barts." Elsewhere, Mann shares "failed pictures" from her photographic memoir, Hold Still, to counter assumptions that "you get better as you go, not repeating the mistakes of the past," and plunges into thorny questions of selling out, recalling a time she accepted a free trip to Qatar to take the emir's portrait but refused further payment ("Artistic true north is variable"). Similarly delicate balances--between light and shadow in photos, humility and chutzpah in life--provide the account with a running theme. Throughout, Mann is a clear-eyed, self-deprecating guide, framing her many mistakes as part of a lifelong creative practice. In the process, she reminds readers that there's nothing static about still photography. This entertains as much as it enlightens. Photos. Agent: Lynn Nesbit, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (Sept.)

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Review by Library Journal Review

In a follow-up to 2016's Hold Still: A Memoir in Photographs, Mann takes on the role of elder photographer, imparting advice to fledgling artists, about leading a life in service to creating great art. A consummate storyteller and accomplished writer, Mann uses anecdotes from her decades of experimentation and pursuit of artistic achievement to illustrate lessons such as the importance of luck to an artist's path, knowing when to keep going and when to stop, dealing with rejection, and when to write (always). While Mann touches on some of the conflict and controversy surrounding her intensely intimate photography, the book focuses more broadly on her journey as an artist. It is illustrated with images of decades of correspondence and journal entries, plus Mann's photographs and scenes from her working life. Of particular interest are later chapters dealing with Mann's photographic process. The final chapter begins as a meditation on the balance between innate talent and practice and ends as a rallying cry to those who would make art in politically uncertain times. VERDICT In Mann's new book, memoir collides with a discussion of the nature of art, creativity, and self-censorship, to positive effect.--Rebecca Brody

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

Doing art. Photographer Mann looks back at a long career to reflect on creativity, inspiration, and the "decades of obsessive practice" she's needed "to get shit done." Now in her 70s, Mann aims her book at "young artists and writers, with the vain, and vainglorious, hope that some of it will make a difference in the way you organize (yes, I did say organize) your creative practice, or that it might help you avoid some of the pits into which I fell." Twelve chapters address issues such as luck, rejection, censorship (including self-censorship), distractions, family, risk-taking, and, lastly, talent. Although from early childhood she was determined to choose her own path in life, stubbornness did not ensure she'd achieve her goals. Luck played a big part, "as though there were a hidden pattern, a matrix of coincidence that invisibly undergirded my life." And she worked hard. "Learn your craft," she advises. "You learn it like you learned typing (or we should have) or baking a soufflé or driving a backhoe." She encourages her readers to believe that "in all of us, the unique events and emotions in our past will have carved a trace in our soul." Moreover, "if you're going to imitate, or steal, you'd damn well better do an irreproachable and transcendent version that is entirely your vision or voice." In a book filled with anecdotes, among the most entertaining recounts her reluctant visit to Qatar, at the invitation of the emir, who wanted her to photograph him--a trip that turned into an unexpectedly rich adventure. Illustrated with her photographs, screenshots of journal entries, to-do lists, letters (many to photographer Ted Orland), and even a bankbook, the volume testifies to the evolution of a unique aesthetic persona. Candid, irreverent, and engaging. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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