Sally Mann Wins Nineth Prix Tictet With “Blackwater” Series

On December 15, 2021, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, UK, opened the “Fire” exhibition. Thirteen photographers short-listed for the Prix Tictet, a prestigious award for sustainability, were invited to submit work. Sally Mann’s “Blackwater” series took the prize, which is a 100,000 Swiss franc endowment.

Mann has experienced fire in Virginia, particularly in Great Dismal Swamp area. In her artist statement, she noted that “the fires of the Great Dismal Swamp seemed to epitomize the great fire of racial strife in America - civil war, emancipation, the civil rights movement, in which my family was a part, the racial turmoil of the late 1960s and, more recently, summer 2020. Something deeply flawed in Americans seems to embrace the apocalyptic as a solution. “

The exhibition runs through January 9, 2020. Admission is free. Work from all thirteen finalists may be viewed online by clicking here.

Blackwater 30 (detail) by Sally Mann, from the VAM website advertising the exhibition