A couple weeks ago Adore Magazine featured and interviewed me for their January/February issue. Here is a selection of the photographs that were published and the interview:
Interview
AN: Please introduce yourself. Where are you from?
MT: My name is Manuela Thames and I was born and raised in
Germany. Growing up I lived in various
towns and cities, the most well-known of which is Cologne. I also lived in
Switzerland for a year which is where I met my husband, who is American. In
2004 we got married and I moved to the US.
We now live in Saint Paul, MN with our two young sons.
AN: How did you become interested in photography?
MT: My grandfather was an amateur photographer, and I
remember how his old black and white family portraits used to inspire wonder
and fascination in me. Also, my father carried a camera with him almost
everywhere he went (he later gave me a couple of his old film cameras). So from as far back as I can remember I have
been around photography and found it alluring.
When I got my first point and shoot camera as a teenager, I
used to lock myself in my room and take self portraits. I dressed up in
different clothes and created my own little world away from my reality,
pretending to be someone else. I never showed these pictures to anyone, and
unfortunately I don’t know if they even exist anymore. But it wasn't until
years later, after a life changing year of experiencing the death of my brother
and the birth of my first son nine years ago, that I began to seriously pursue
photography, partly as a way to work through such intense and confusing
emotions, and partly to use this time of interruption in my life as a chance to
explore some new dimensions and possibilities within myself.
AN: Please tell us about your series “Broken Mirror.”
MT: We had a mirror
hanging in our living room that I always wanted to use in my pictures.
I had a vision of
an entire series using just a mirror and myself as an object, which then
evolved into the idea of using pieces of a broken mirror and playing with the
distortions and partial reflections. Before I start photographing, I often have
a very clear sense of what I want a picture or series to look like, and then I
just need to get it out. In this case, however, I just took the mirror off my
wall and broke it myself so that I could play around with the pieces.
I had been
thinking about the way we see different reflections of ourselves throughout the
day, not just mirrors but also windows or other surfaces. And each time I am
surprised at how different each reflection is and also how different I probably
look to others from what I think I look like. This has always brought up the
questions of perception, truth, reality, and how a reflection can be really
deceptive, even though it’s usually assumed to be true.
AN: Can you tell us a bit about the technical process for this
series?
MT: Answering questions about technique is not my favorite subject,
as I am not a very technical person. For me it's all about the end product; I
don't spend much time thinking about how I can get there, especially not in
terms of efficiency. Much of the process
is trial and error, and I just keep working at things until I get what I
want. To a certain extent I find that
approach quite engaging. That said, I do
try to educate myself on different techniques and ways I can achieve certain
effects, because it will greatly expand my possibilities and save me from a lot
of trial and frustration.
In this series the
mirror images were shot digitally and processed a bit in Photoshop. In
addition, I used black and white nature images shot with a Holga camera to
produce a double exposure effect or to create some texture. In some of the
pictures it is more obvious than in others.
AN: What inspires you?
MT: I get inspired by nature, books, especially poetry, music
and other photographers. But mostly my inspiration comes from my own
experiences, thoughts, struggles I am trying to work through and conversations
with other people.
AN: What or who are your influences?
MT: I seem to get obsessed with one particular photographer
at a time. I read everything about them and try to find every image they have
ever taken and my work gets influenced by their work, then I move on to another
one, and so on. At least that seems to be my pattern.
In the beginning I was inspired by Harry Callahan’s work. I
love the simplicity of his photographs and his stunning nude portraits of his
wife. Then for a while it was Francesca Woodman. I was intrigued and saddened
by her story and her images are still among my favorites.
I absolutely love Sally Mann’s work. And like Woodman, it
isn’t just her photographs that inspire me, it’s her life as well – how she
lives her life with so much authenticity and simplicity. She has been living in the same place for
many years on her farm in Virginia away from most technology. As her kids grew up they ran around in nature
all summer long and played board games for entertainment. And she created some
of the most stunning images while caring for her children and going on about
the tasks and chores that had to be done on a daily basis. I love living in a
city, but feel very drawn to that kind of lifestyle.
AN: Do you have any upcoming projects or shows?
MT: I am currently in
the process of working on a new series titled “Milk Bath”. This time it won’t
be a self portrait series, but portraits of a variety of people of all ages and
backgrounds, and they all have to get in a bath tub filled with milk water. I
don’t want to give too much away, but very broadly speaking this series will
explore themes of dependency, equality, and unity.
Also, I am
preparing for a fairly big show in June here in the Twin Cities where several
of my self portrait images will be exhibited.
The show will be curated by Twin Cities-based photographer Douglas
Beasley, and I am very excited to be part of it.
AN: What is your final say?
MT: I think I would
like to end this interview with one of my favorite quotes by Sally Mann, and I
don’t think I need to add anything to it.
"Artists go out of their way
to reinforce the perception that good art is made by singular people, people
with an exceptional gift. But I don’t believe I am that exceptional, so what is
this that I’m making?
Ordinary art is what I am making.
I am a regular person doggedly making ordinary art. But as Ted Orland and David
Bayles point out in their book Art and Fear, “ordinary art” is the art that
most of us, those of us not Proust or Mozart, actually make. If Proust-like
genius were the prerequisite for art, then statistically speaking very little
of it would exist. Art is seldom the result of true genius; rather, it is the
product of hard work and skills learned and tenaciously practiced by regular people.
In my case, I practice my skills despite repeated failures and self-doubt so
profound it can masquerade outwardly as conceit. It’s not heroic in any way. To
the contrary, it’s plodding, obdurate effort. I make bad picture after bad
picture week after week until the relief comes: the good new picture that
offers benediction."
~Sally Mann
Name:
Manuela Thames
What is your official website?
www.manuelathamesphotography.com
