This lovely black and white image is a photograph taken by Sally Mann. She is an American photographer (still alive!). Her photographs were admired and scorned by spectators. 

      Most of her known works are black and white photographs of her children. The ones I will post of of her kids at her family's cabin. While most of these images do have a lot of naked kids running about, her intention was to capture their growth- that relationship where puberty takes you from child to adult and the awkwardness  She also captures the relationships her children have with other children and their parents (looking at their mother through the lens and a touching portait with their father). 

      So where does the scorn come from? Well, the Wall Street Journal did not take kindly to naked little girls being displayed and actually censored an image. She also got a lot of backlash for an image of her child's nosebleed. She was actually told by a lawyer to not carry more than 8 photographs or she could be arrested for child pornography (shock!) 

       Despite the random negative nancies of the world, I find her photographs beautiful. She managed to capture her kids in a light most wouldn't see- like a private moment but not invasive. Kinda hard to make puberty and growing up look beautiful in my opinion. I remember it being awkward but I see a light in her images that I don't recall. Maybe that's how my own mother saw me..... you know?