Artist Lecture

John Mann
John Mann was the artist I when to see speak on March 25. He graduated from University of New Mexico with an MFA in Photography. Now he lives in Florida, where he teaches and creates his art. He is a faculty member in the same school as Meg Mitchell, Florida State University.
His work is internationally exhibited it’s been in London, Portland, New York, Miami and also published in couple of magazines. In his “Folded in Place” photographic series we can see interesting methods he incorporated to describe the landscapes. Mann uses mapping, drawing and sculpture as well with photography to depict those landscapes. The images have abstract familiarity. All the images of places we have seen but he replaces the experience of being there with a photograph. The photo puts a distance from the actual experience.
In his other projects “The Cut Path” and “The Travelers” he followed the path of telephone lines moving into the landscape and hitchhikers. The telephone poles he photographed were the ones that were not mapped out. And in the case of the hitchhikers, Mann photographed the length of the trail they walked. This was not a documentary but a showing of the unmapped journey and distance they traveled.
Overall, all of his work was really interesting and he gives a different perspective of how we look at photographs. The way Mann shoots his images is very innovative and the photographs are aesthetically beautiful.