Sally Mann

Artist Sally Mann discusses her latest book, Art Work: On the Creative Life (Abrams Press, 2025), an exploration of creativity with stories, advice, and life lessons. Illustrated throughout with photographs, journal entries, and letters Art Work offers insights about the hazards of early promise; the unpredictable role of luck; the value of work; the challenges of rejection and distraction; the importance of risk-taking; and the rewards of knowing why and when to say yes.

This program is FULL TO CAPACITY and registration is closed.

To purchase Art Work in advance use this link to order through Symposium Books. Books will be available for purchase at the program. A book signing immediately follows the program.

This program is co-presented with RISD Fleet Library, RISD Museum, RISD Photography Department, and Symposium Books.

Sally Mann is a Guggenheim Fellow and three-time recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. She was named “America’s Best Photographer” by Time in 2001. In 2021, she received the Prix Pictet and was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame. She has been the subject of two documentaries: Blood Ties (1994), which was nominated for an Academy Award, and What Remains (2006), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for an Emmy for Best Documentary. Mann’s Hold Still: A Memoir with Photographs (2015) received universal critical acclaim, was a finalist for the National Book Award, and won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. Mann is based in Lexington, Virginia.