Statement

I believe in digitally altering and transforming my photographs as I wish. I am not interested in representing the data the camera captures, or in rendering files as authentic, “as-shot” data. Using this approach allows me to work as a painter might, exploring colors, forms, and textures. Although photographic filter pre-sets have become popular in today’s social media world, my interpretations are instead produced using experimentation, tweaking, guessing, hoping, failing and succeeding.

Working both from photos that are National Geographic quality (I have worked as a professional travel photographer), and uncontrolled, imperfect street-photography images, I use my digital bag of tricks to produce an image that I like. The final results must yield an image of integrity when displayed in a large format, with compelling details and without revealing artifacts created by my process. As a commercial photographer I was trained to produce a precisely-exposed, well-composed photograph. As a fine artist, I am able to leave rules and expectations behind. Besides using a variety of tools that are digitally based, I also explore how to render the results using alternative printing technologies and transfer materials. I would like the viewer to approach my work as art, not judging my work as photography. The traditional evaluations of shadow detail, blown highlights, and focus have no role in the final image I present. A reviewer told me that my work appears dreamy and ambiguous, and is more about capturing a particular feeling and less about reporting of a place or of a person.

In addition to travel images, I am also exploring portraiture and nature.

When a murder was reported in my hometown of Nampa, Idaho, I was quite concerned. Newspaper headlines described the event as an invasion. I learned that a convention of crows had arrived, hanging out at night in large, loud groups, and no one knew why. On my way to my local coffee shop, I was confronted by a neighbor who complained that all the sidewalks and cars were a mess. To this person, this encounter was too close. Not only unattractive, and inconvenient but a criminal conspiracy!

Little did I realize then that the phenomenon of crows roosting in my town was the beginning of a long-term art project. I would create worlds for these birds to exist within to promote a dialogue: how we treat nature, how we share our planet, how our knowledge forms our belief systems, and how they provide opportunities to integrate the otherworldly nature of magic, myth, superstitions, folklore, customs, and culture into our lives.

When I first witnessed the gathering of so many creatures raucously settling in on trees, branches, rooftops, antennas, and wires, and experiencing the hysterical cacophony of their caws, I was compelled to make some pictures. What began as dramatic photographs of crows became a study of myself. I created complex images which required a closer look, encouraged a deep dive into the subconscious, and opened the storytelling aspect of my work as transcendental and magical themes.

With the onset of Covid, my devotion to the process became more intense, and the images more existential and mystical. I realized that for me these crows are my barometer of the challenges we face as a society, including political polarization, respect for the planet, and understanding of the connections of all threads of life.

As I posted crow images to social media, my audience shared their stories and their beliefs. Unlike my town’s annoyance with the birds, they articulated scientific facts (such as crows’ intelligence and ability to use tools), and folklore-based stories of cultures and societies that embrace the crows as spirits. My efforts since have been to depict these creatures as magical and existential. You can decide if the crows are a blessing or curse. In addition, the ordeal of deep personal loss last year influences the self-portrait images, with shadows and isolated metaphors.

The tendency of being for or against, pro or con, right or wrong regarding political matters is common nowadays. This extremism does not facilitate coexistence. We need to learn from each other and understand how we are connected. There is more to life than the physical world. There is an existential domain which, for me, the crows represent. They are spirits. Greek mythology maintains that crows traveled between the visible and invisible. Crows are a connection to history, myths, folklore, and belief systems, their presence deeper than mere facts or studies.

Bio
Lawrence Manning is a visual artist whose work builds upon his career as a professional photographer. He created thousands of images for commercial clients, specializing in lifestyle images honoring his love of working with people. Lawrence’s fine art photography is abstract and impressionistic, often rendering his subjects in an altered state of reality. His work attempts to create a dynamic between the documentary and the poetic.

Lawrence’s work has appeared in group shows locally and throughout the country in galleries which include Praxis Gallery, Verum Ultimum, Art Source, A Smith Gallery, PhotoPlace, SEC4P, Atlanta Photography Group, D’ART, Center for Photographic Art, Duncan Miller, and Boise Art Museum.

In 2011, the US Postal Service chose his photograph of the American flag out of a pool of thousands of entries, which was used on the “United We Stand” postage stamp, commemorating the events on 9/11. “Indiana Festivals,” a book of photographs of small-town festivals, was published by Indiana University in 1976.

After receiving his BA in English Literature from Indiana University in 1969, Lawrence served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Liberia and Ethiopia, where he began taking photographs. In 1976, he received his master’s degree in Instructional Technology from Indiana University and worked in Nigeria, West Africa. In 2000, he partnered with his wife, fine art painter and commercial art director, Betty Mallorca, to create Hill Street Studios, a multi-faceted media production company. In 2002, he was one of the founders of Blend Images, the first photographer-owned stock photography agency, specializing in commercial images of global ethnicities and lifestyles.

Lawrence is active in his community, serving as a commissioner for the city’s Arts and Historic Commission, and as a board member of the Downtown Nampa Community Association and Main Street America organizations.