Cigarette-Candy

Cigarette-Candy, Sally Mann, 1989

Cigarette-Candy is a photograph created by Sally Man in 1989. The main focus of the photograph displays a young girl holding a cigarette (candy). The image contains three figures; the iconic blonde holding a cigarette, another young girl in the right foreground and a young boys lower body can be seen in the left background where he is climbing a ladder. The main girl in the photograph is slouched away from the path behind her, unlike the other children in the picture who face the path ahead of them. Her stubborn pose, and cigarette in hand could symbolism the rebellion phase of a teenage girls life. Due to this cigarette in hand it may cause her to go down a different path in life than that of the other children in the photograph

I think one big thing that Mann was trying to do with this photograph is to illustrate the problem of children trying to mature too fast. A girl that age shouldn't be smoking a cigarette and I believe that is what she is trying to address. That children now think adulthood is so glorious and amazing that they try to speed up their childhood to get to it. What they don't realize though is that childhood is one of the greatest times of someones life and there is no point in trying to speed up that process.

It seems like Mann almost purposely added light on the young girl, because it seems as if she is so clear and in focus that she is glowing, as to signify her importance. As the viewer I felt very drawn in by the apathetic expression on the girls face. I feel like the further we try to look into this picture the more we will see. There is more than meets the eye. This is something that I think is very crucial. You never know what someone is going through and why they make the choices they make, but like this little girl, guidance is the best thing for them.