Mann’s photograph Picnic on the Grass is a portrait of her daughter at a picnic sitting in the same pose as Victorine Meurent, the model for the nude in Manet’s Luncheon on the Grass.
Jessie at 7 shows her daughter Jesse sitting on the Grass with a plate of food: a burger and potato chips. Picnic 1992 (1992) shows three girls watching a brush fire in the distance at a picnic blanket. The photographs are sad and without picnicky joy.
Featured Image: Sally Mann. Luncheon on the Grass (1991). Gelatin silver print.