Curtis Mann and the Whitney Biennel

© Curtis Mann

Curtis Mann is another Whitney Biennel artist (from Chicago) whose work is original and extraordinary.

Curtis Mann appropriates and manipulates found photographs to create new photographs. After re-shooting and enlarging the found image, he then physically erases portions of it through a bleaching process so that only faint traces of the original remain, replaced with an ambiguous emptiness. Other portions are painted with a varnish to resist the bleach and are left intact. Through this subtractive and additive process, Mann expands the boundaries of the medium of photography, while at the same time reflects on the fragility of the photographic image as a source of information. (info from MOCP website)

© Curtis Mann

You can read more about him on the Conscientious Blog, where Jorg Colberg has provided an extensive interview with Mann.