With our world and lifestyles constantly changing, each generation is growing up different than the one before it. Some people think that the younger generations are being exposed to things that are corrupting them and influencing them in negative ways. In Sally Mann's photo, "Candy Cigarette", the young girl holding the cigarette can be seen as a representation of the corruptness of youth. It makes us think about the things that we are exposing children too and the effect that it has on them. While some may argue that our world is changing for the better with advancements in many different areas, our social attitudes and morals have significantly shifted. Mann's photo is a depiction of the impact that this change has had on our younger generations.

One of the most prominent elements about this picture is that it is photographed in black and white. The contrast of colors gives the visual a very intense and serious feeling. The young girls dress is a very bright white which makes her stand out and become the focal point of the picture. The cigarette she is holding is also white, both of those contrast with the darker background which draws the viewer's attention to them. Her dress is also a contradiction with the cigarette. White often means purity, and you would often think of children as pure, but her holding a cigarette suggests that she is impure. While the girl is clearly young, the image she gives off is not that of a young child. Her facial expression, hair and the attitude she portrays is that of an adult. She seems to have a very carefree attitude, much like that of a child, but in a very different way. We also see another girl who we can assume is also very young by her size, but she gives off a much more childish image with her ponytail, curly hair and even her stance. We can even see what looks like a little boy in the background playing with something, which also gives him the characteristics of a child. While all three of the kids are most likely very close in age, the girl in the white dress gives off a totally different image and feeling than the other two. The maturity level of the kids seems to have a significant gap.

Another detail that stands out is the positioning of the two other kids in comparison to the girl in the white dress. We can see that the she is positioned in the middle of them while the other little girl is farther behind her and the little boy is even farther in the background. While the girl in the dress is looking towards us, the other two children are looking way. This could be seen as a representation of the children taking different paths. The girl in the dress is choosing to do something dangerous and something way too mature for her age, while the other two kids seem to be acting a lot more like children. They are going one way down the path while the girl is going the other way. It seems as if she is walking down the wrong path that is characterized by bad decisions, while the other two children are walking down the right path that leads them to good decisions.

This photo can be seen in many different ways. It can be seen as foreshadowing, corruption or the maturity of youth. Maybe it's not that the young girl is making bad decisions now, but will in her future. The other two kids in the background looking down the path could also be seen as looking into their future, which appears to lead them in a different direction than the girl in the white dress. Corruption can obviously be seen by the fact that she is a child and has a cigarette in her hand. It can even be seen in a way that children are maturing and growing up too fast. The young girl obviously is not acting like a child by her attitude and the cigarette.

Depending on how you look at this photo, there are many things that can be taken away from it. It gets viewers to look deeply at it to understand its meaning. The representation of this photo shows the corruptness of youth, whether it be because of our changing lifestyles, lack of supervision, or both. Something that stands out in this picture is that there are no parents or adults around. This could represent a lack of supervision that occurs with young children. This young girl is being allowed to make a bad decision because there is no supervision around her to tell her not too.  Children need to have good role models to look up to. They need to be guided and have someone to help them make good decisions. Without it, they can be lead down the wrong path, like the young girl in the picture.

A visual text has a power to convey a message that sometimes words can't. Sally Mann's photo conveyed a very strong and important message through the use of color, angle, and positioning of objects in the photo. From just looking at it we can tell that that the visual is about children, but after analyzing it we can see the deeper meaning. It is important to understand that everything you do, even the tiniest of things, can have a big impact on those around you.
