Silver Eye 2013 Keystone Award: Ross Mantle
Ross graduated from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio and currently divides his time between his native Pittsburgh, PA and Brooklyn, NY, working on personal projects and accepting commissions. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, with his latest series, California, Pennsylvania, currently on view at the Silver Eye Center for Photography in Pittsburgh, PA. Ross’ prints and booklets can be found in the collections of the Houston Center for Photography and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX.
Made throughout the Northeast United States and in California state between 2010 and 2012, this series draws inspiration from the structure of short story cycles and traditions of personal and conceptual documentary photography. Working with methods of portraiture, still life and landscape, I use these disparate regions as a backdrop for narratives of unresolved expectations.
This series is comprised of two parts, which can be viewed independently or as a singular work. Images from the Northeast comprise the first series, titled California, Pennsylvania. Its companion is Appendix, California, a shorter series of images made between San Francisco and Los Angeles.
These works navigate fragile spaces of restlessness, desire and disenchantment encountered along a journey that reaches no destination. Along this course, I examine the relationships that people have created between themselves and their environments, resolving romanticized notions of the American road trip and day dream visions of life in California.
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