Werner Mansholt: Not Unusual

Werner Mansholt: Not Unusual by Aline SmithsonMay 17, 2016

Ein Mann streicht eine Laterne am Meer an, Gra Lia, Kreta, Griechenland

©Werner Mansholt

German photographer, Werner Mansholt, has a wonderfully humorous and well-seen body of work, Not Unusual, that will be part of a new book, Street Photography, Two Thousand and Fifteen, published by Everard Williams of Acuity Press. Curated by Colin Westerbeck, additional street photographers included in the book are Julia Dean, Seth Rubin, Pawel Walczyk, Alessandro Bo, Barbara Peacock, amongst many more.

Werner captures that split second moment so critical to street photography that makes the ordinary a bit extraordinary, taking the every day and seeing it differently through humorous juxtapositions or poignant connections.

Werner Mansholt is based in Darmstadt, Germany. After studying law and political sciences he worked as a labor lawyer, but his passion was photography. He attended workshops with Anders Petersen, Arno R. Minkkinen, Anja Niedringhaus, Martino Marangoni, Wolfgang Zurborn, Eva Leitolf, Philipp Blenkinsop, Kadir v. Lohuizen, Jo Ractliffe, Davide Monteleone, Simon Norfolk (Masterclass) and Celina Lunsford (Artistic Director of Fotografie Forum Frankfurt).

Werner’s work has been exhibited in Kaunas (Lituania), Teplice/Prague (Czech Republic), Plock (Poland), Tbilisi (Georgia), Helsinki (Finland) and Germany (Berlin, Hamburg, Darmstadt, Cologne, etc.) and has been internationally published in (DIE ZEIT Zeit-online.de, LFI LEICA FOTOGRAFIE INTERNATIONAL, L’Oeil de la Photographie – The Eye of Photography, FotografiaMagazine, DOC-Photomagazine, SHOTS Magazine, LENSCRATCH, lensculture, LifeForceMagazine, etc.). In 2013, Werner published the book Besuch bei Detlef Kraft.

His Awards and Nominations include the shortlist at Athens Photo 2015; Shortlist LODZ Grand Fotofestiwal 2015; Finalist Kaunas Photo 2015; Finalist Schömberg Fotopreis 2015; Honorable Mention MIFA (Moscow International Photo Awards) PRO 2014; Honorable Mention PhotoAnnualAwards (Prague, Czech Republic) 2014; Honorable Mention IPA Lucie-Award PRO, Los Angeles (USA) 2013; Shortlist International Fotofestival Schömberg (Germany) 2013; Shortlist Tbilisi Kolga-Festival (Georgia), 2012, Honorable Mention Lucie-Award, Los Angeles (USA) 2008; Honorable Mention, Prix de la Photographie, Paris (France) 2007.

Zwei Mädchen sitzen in Tarlabashe vor der Haustür und spielen mit Seifenblasen; Istanbul, Türkei

©Werner Mansholt

Not Unusual

When I am traveling, I like to stroll around and follow people in their surroundings as they go about their daily lives ; people are waiting or walking, working or eating and there is always something beautiful, something special. All the pictures tell little stories about love and desire, about loneliness and happiness, about inconsistency juxtaposed humor and not least about myself.

The photographs were taken in Australia, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Greece, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Scotland (UK) and Turkey.