honorable mention
Matthias Mann united states
title
Other Worlds
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entry description
My interest in photography has always been grounded in the joy of exploration and discovery. This has been the case ever since I first began doing nature photography in the woods of Maine, and has continued on into my studio work with this series. Through the use of food coloring, glass, cellophane, and water, I create scenes whose phenomena of color and form are uncovered through a moving light over a long exposure. By using the camera’s unique ability to view time as a two-dimensional, flattened object, I explore these environments of color that can never be naturally seen. By viewing the work through this perspective, I try to change some of the underlying narratives of the camera in relation to this series. Rather than the typical association of the camera as an instrument of documentation, an idea that assumes the photographer is able to see what they are photographing, the camera instead becomes a kind of scientific tool of exploration. In this way, the camera functions as a kind of guide for the photographer, rather than a tool solely used to capture the photographer’s vision. Through these images, I work to evoke a sense of wonder at these environments formed of light, color, and time that defy our conventional understanding of sight.about the photographer
Matthias Mann is an experimental photographer whose current work features constructed scenes of abstract color photographed in the studio. Growing up in rural Maine, his early work was primarily modernist black and white studies in nature inspired by Wynn Bullock and Edward Weston. Later inspired by Lynn Saville, this work eventually developed into colorful night photography in small, coastal towns. He incorporated these studies back into the natural world through experiments with still lifes in nature, photographed at night and lit either by moonlight or a moving light source. This style of painting with light combined with an appreciation for technical rigor and formalism has caused his planes of abstracted color to not only draw inspiration from contemporary abstract photographers, but also on the rich history of modernist photography.back to gallery
