At Twelve is a composite portrait that is both universal and intimately personal. As Ann Beattie writes in her perceptive introduction, "These girls still exist in an innocent world in which a pose is only a pose—what adults make of that pose may be the issue."

"Haunting black-and-white studies of children, shown here as surprisingly sensual and often distant beings, the magical keepers of some obscure and vaguely frightening secrets." —Karen Lipson, Newsday

"Sally Mann's photography is a clear pane... not intrusion, but revelation. These young women distill something for the eye... something beautiful and sad and moving, something purely female." —Diane Sawyer