Jessie at 9

1991

Sally Mann

Artist, American, born 1951

At the center of this composition, a naked girl stands poised at the base of a rocky cliff facing a body of water in this black and white vertical photograph. Light glints off her pale skin in a way that makes it look almost like burnished metal. Her dark hair falls over her shoulders in wet cords. Her body is angled away from us but we see her face in profile. She stands tall, her chin lifted, her eyes downcast, her lips together, perhaps blowing out a breath. Her arms reach straight by her sides next to her buttocks, and her hands are lifted outward, like small wings. She stands balanced on the rock’s edge, her feet together and her toes angled down. The body of water to our right is mostly ink black, but white clouds reflect in its shiny surface in the lower right corner. The girl and the rocky cliff behind her are in crisp focus. Blurry in the background, more tree-covered cliffs fill in most of the rest of the photograph, except for a patch of white sky in the upper right corner. Bright sunlight there washes out the trees nearby.
This object’s media is not available for download. Contact us about image usage.

Artwork overview


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

David M. Malcolm, Bedford, NY; gift to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 2004; acquired by NGA, 2015.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

2006

  • Sight/Insight: Photographs from the Permanent Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, April 26 – October 29, 2006

Inscriptions

on verso, signed by artist, bottom right in graphite: Jessie at 9 / © 1991 Sally Mann / 4/25; bottom left in graphite: A gift for Greg and Patty in / memory of Peter Malcolm

Wikidata ID

Q64171326


You may be interested in

Loading Results