Lee Mary Manning

Photographer Lee Mary Manning (b. 1972, Alton, Illinois) models a method of close and care-filled looking in carefully arranged juxtapositions of 35mm analog prints.

Taking familiar objects and scenes as their subject matter, Manning’s photos picture people, nature, the street, and everything in between.

Conceptualizing “paying attention as a practice of being alive,” the artist insists on the importance and meaning of quiet moments and humdrum things that might initially seem unremarkable. For Manning, photography is an exercise in recording and collecting—often prints are paired with saved mementos such as insect parts, a restaurant napkin, or a plastic bag. Sharing this diaristic archive of their lived experience pivots on a sincere relationship of trust with the viewer that they too will be interested in noticing the commonplace. Even as the works function as a record, they don’t document the artist’s experiences in a particularly legible way. Manning’s photos flirt with a kind of poetic illegibility—everyday life, abstracted.

To make their works, Manning uses basic point and shoot film cameras and works largely with mini-lab prints that they can hold and move around next to each other, finding felicitous formal congruences between the images. This sequencing practice began with their website Unchanging Window, a pre-Instagram, pre-Tumblr online forum that began in 2006 as a way to share photos and cultural recommendations with friends. Despite their online origins, the works resist crisp, digitized image culture. Instead, Manning takes an unprecious approach. The images are never retouched or cropped, occasionally they show the trace of fuzz on the lens or are slightly out of focus, and prints can be covered in fingerprints. While Manning is slow and intentional about looking and choosing what to capture, the physical act of taking the photo is often improvised and on-the-move—and the motion of the body of the photographer is often legible through the blur of the print. Primarily influenced by dance, film, and poetry, Manning often draws from the formal methods of these media. The shaped juxtapositions of their multi-photograph compositions are akin to the rhythmic quality of poetic stanzas or the evocative cuts of experimental film. The works exemplifyboth photography and looking as acts of care, tenderly drawing our attention to modest but remarkable moments.

Artist: Studio

"I might start out by setting a bunch of pictures on a napkin and saying, Well, that looks really cool. Sometimes using ephemera feels like a trick, a fun kind of device. But I want to find the gentlest version of the arrangement. It’s like letting something seep through a mesh sieve and seeing what stays."

Artworks

Lee Mary Manning,

2023,

Chromogenic prints, mat board, artist's frame,

40 × 32 in (101.6 × 81.28 cm)

Lee Mary Manning,

Arcobaleni,

2023,

Chromogenic prints, tissue paper, mat board, artist's frame,

17 ¼ × 18 ¾ in (43.82 × 47.63 cm)

 

Lee Mary Manning,

High Hopes Redux,

2023,

Chromogenic prints, mat board, artist's frame,

27 × 23 in (68.58 × 58.42 cm)

 

Lee Mary Manning,

who made the glass flowers,

2023,

Chromogenic prints, mat board, artist's frame,

36 ¼ × 24 ¼ in (92.08 × 61.6 cm)

 

Lee Mary Manning,

Walking is Still Honest,

2023,

Chromogenic prints, mat board, artist's frame,

28 × 22 in (71.12 × 55.88 cm)

Lee Mary Manning,

Mike Leigh,

2020,

Chromogenic print,

30 × 22 in (76.2 × 55.88 cm)

 

Lee Mary Manning,

Genuflect (For/After Jonas Mekas),

2022,

38 ½ × 24 ½ × 1 ½ in (97.79 × 62.23 × 3.81 cm)

Chromogenic prints, mat board, artist's frame

Lee Mary Manning,

Milling Around the Village,

2022,

30 ¼ × 20 ¼ × 1 ½ in (76.835 × 51.435 × 3.81 cm)

Chromogenic prints, mat board, artist's frame

Lee Mary Manning,

Dadelion,

2022,

20 ¼ × 16 ¼ × 1 ½ in (51.435 × 41.275 × 3.81 cm)

Chromogenic prints, mat board, artist's frame

Lee Mary Manning,

Bar Soap,

2022,

20 ¼ × 16 ¼ × 1 ½ in (51.435 × 41.275 × 3.81 cm)

Chromogenic prints, mat board, artist's frame

Lee Mary Manning,

Sharp Cutting Wings (Song to a Poet),

2022,

28 ¼ × 18 ½ × 1 ½ in (71.755 × 46.99 × 3.81 cm)

Chromogenic prints, mat board, moth wings, artist's frame

Lee Mary Manning,

Birdsong at Lismore,

2021,

20 × 13 inches (50.80 × 33.02 cm)

Chromogenic print

Lee Mary Manning,

Compersion,

2021,

20 × 16 in (50.8 × 40.64 cm)

C-prints on matboard

Lee Mary Manning,

Isness,

2021,

20 × 16 in (50.8 × 40.64 cm)

C-prints on matboard

Lee Mary Manning,

Prospect Park,

2020,

20 × 16 in (50.8 × 40.64 cm)

C-prints on matboard

Lee Mary Manning,

Knock Knock,

2018,

7 ½ × 5 in (19.05 × 12.7 cm)

C-prints and fabric on matboard

Lee Mary Manning,

February's March,

2018,

20 ½ × 16 ½ in (52.07 × 41.91 cm)

C-prints on matboard

Lee Mary Manning,

Zuppa,

2018,

23 ⅞ × 15 ⅞ in (60.6425 × 40.3225 cm)

C-print

Lee Mary Manning,

Atlas Eclipticalis,

2018,

20 ½ × 16 ½ in (52.07 × 41.91 cm)

C-prints on matboard

Lee Mary Manning,

60/40 (Ben, Diamond, Maia, Sean, Elisabeth, Annabeth, Violet, Carl, Anh, Ian, Marc, Carl),

1997,

20 ½ × 16 ½ in (52.07 × 41.91 cm)

C-prints on matboard

Lee Mary Manning,

Love,

2018,

11 ½ × 9 in (29.21 × 22.86 cm)

C-prints on matboard

Installation Views

Installation view of Trust Me (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, August 19, 2023-February 2024).

Exhibitions

Lee Mary Manning, Ambient Music, Apr 14 – May 21, 2022
Lee Mary Manning, Love, Oct 26 – Dec 9, 2018

Publications

Lee Mary Manning
Grace Is Like New Music, 2023

Lee Mary Manning
First Impressions of Greece, 2014

Press

John Vincler, “Lee Mary Manning, A Young Artist in Their 50s, Keeps Peaking”, Cultured, June 21

Cassie Packard "The Case for the Place of Feeling in Photography." ArtReview October 5, 2023

John Vincler "When All the Art Is Green: Swiss Institute Takes On Climate Change." The New York Times August 31, 2023

Olivia Singer "How Marc Jacobs was inspired by the life and fashion of Vivienne Westwood their muse." i-D February 17, 2023

Izzy Einstein "Speaking in Tongues." office July 20, 2022

Maia Siegel "Lingua Franca." The Brooklyn Rail July 15, 2022

"Close Listening: Mary Manning and Ben Estes in Conversation." Bomb May 9, 2022

Lisa Yin Zhang "Mary Manning Ambient Music." TheGuide.Art May 4, 2022

John Vincler "What to See in N.Y.C. Galleries Right Now." NYT April 27, 2022

Tilly Maclister-Smith, Harriet Llyod-Smith "The best New York art exhibitions: from Nari Ward to Gillian Wearing." Wallpaper April 27, 2022

Ksenia Soboleva "Looking Back / The 12th White Columns Annual Selected by Mary Manning." The Brooklyn Rail March 2, 2022

Johanna Fateman "“Looking Back: The 12th White Columns Annual"." Artforum March 1, 2022

C Packard "Looking Back / The 12th White Columns Annual – Selected by Mary Manning." Hyperallergic February 1, 2022

TILLY MACALISTER-SMITH, HARRIET LLOYD-SMITH "The best New York art exhibitions: from Bruce Nauman to Gillian Wearing."Wallpaper January 21, 2022

Ruby Jeune Tresch "ARTIST OF THE WEEK Mary Manning." LVL3 December 14, 2021

"Mary Manning’s Photography Shows Us What Life Can Look Like After Patriarchy Collapse." i-D November 6, 2019

"Solidarity Is Spirituality: A Conversation between Mary Manning and Olivia Laing." Aperture Winter 2019

Olivia Laing "Best books of 2018: Hilary Mantel, Yuval Noah Harari and more pick their favourites." The Guardian December 3, 2018

Kat Herriman "My Upstate Dream Date With Artists Susan Cianciolo and Mary Manning." Cultured September 21, 2017

"Isn’t There Another Part of Now." Girls Like Us Summer 2017

Alec Coiro "Mary Manning At Cleopatra’s." Ravelin 2016

"Hiccups." Apology Summer 2015

CV

Lee Mary Manning

b. 1972, Alton, IL

Lives and works in New York, NY

  • Education

    • 1994

      BA, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL

  • Selected Solo Exhibitions

    • 2024

      Veedon Fleece, Lismore Castle Arts, Lismore, Ireland

    • 2023

      Mary Manning: In Excelsis, Complesso Monumentale di San Nicolò, Spoleto, Italy

      Spora, Swiss Institute, New York, NY

    • 2022

      Ambient Music, CANADA, New York, NY

    • 2018

      Love, CANADA, New York, NY

      Blueprints, Little Sister, Toronto, Canada

    • 2017

      Trees Is As Good As Anything, Cleopatra’s, Brooklyn, NY

    • 2015

      August, 8 Ball Super Club, New York, NY