Photographer Michael Philip Manheim | 'Rythm From Within'
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Michael Philip Manheim has a signature style of layering multiple exposures of authentic movement onto a single photographic frame. The result is an impressionistic approach that transcends the literal.
In describing ‘Rhythm from Within’ Manheim quicly understood that he was photographing spirit and psyche, more than surface. His subjects are relating to nature in a manner that simultaneously reveals their inner selves.
I began ‘The Energy of Dance’ with the Limon Dance Company in 1998. I started by being in control, asking the dancers to repeat specific passages of movement that I had observed on stage and in rehearsals. They quickly caught on to the technique I was developing, and appropriately began improvising. I reacted instinctively and reactively, adding many images to each frame of film, without time to deliberate. Giving up control meant welcoming a multitude of surprises. Over time, photographs appeared that ranged from amazing juxtapositions, to intricate meshings with nature, to complex depths of expression. Sometimes a rare and refreshing beauty developed that itself transcended the literal and reflected an inner radiance.
A gallery director named this approach ‘Rhythm from Within’ , making it the new name for the project.
The artist is currently showing re-flex-ive, a review of his early works, at The Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, Mass until July 16, 2011. He has a gallery talk Tuesday evening at 7pm. See Griffin Museum at Digital Silver Imaging for details.
