Gallery – Jason Manning
Jason Manning’s life as a photographer has now returned to the untempered passion for his art that he began with.
“I didn’t have the patience to do painting,” he says, “so when I left Suffolk Art College I borrowed a camera and went round India for six months taking the sort of photographs that I liked.”
This however, was not the beginning of a career as a commercial photographer. Instead, he ended up doing every job under the sun to keep himself afloat, first in his native Suffolk, then in London – tree surgery, meat factory, bean-picking, lettuce-hoeing, catering, Pizza Hut, building sites , dispatch rider. He spent his spare time going to demonstrations and gatherings, shooting “public life in London”. His break came when a friend gave him two rolls of film and asked him to contribute to the first issue of the magazine Sleaze Nation. Jason shot footage of a Renaissance club night and ended up on a retainer for two years. In the meantime he built up a host of magazine contacts during the late ‘90s, working for The Face, Arena, Muzik, DJ and others, as well as showing at a number of exhibitions.
In the end, though, Manning became frustrated with the media’s relationship with photography.
“I don’t like the idea of them [editorial] having a story in mind, “ he explains, “so you go somewhere to get that story without knowing for sure if that story is there. I’d go to places to do a feature about rock’n’roll meltdowns and everyone would be drinking bottled water. That sort of thing. I like the idea of going somewhere, soaking up the material and then deciding how to present it.”
Jason went go back to college – the London College of Communication – to study photography in more depth. “I realised it bears up to more scrutiny than I thought, or that that the institutions I worked for allowed,” he says.
Now, at 35, Jason Manning still works for the likes of Attitude and The Observer but is more selective and devotes much of his time to projects aimed at gallery exhibition.
Folklore Series
“I did a load of portraits of people I know, either late at night or early in the morning. The idea behind the Folklore series is that even though they’re all friends who know each other, we throw ourselves in these kind of states where we wonder whether we do know each other or not. Most knowledge I have of people comes from these sort situations which makes me wonder – do we all know each other that well, then? You end up building up impressions of people in an ambiguous sort of way, not a bad way but definitely folkloric impressions. The other shots are of basic Suffolk scenery, visual metaphors that lay alongside the rest. Moving through combinations of both the viewer builds their own story.”
Folklore 03
Tom At Sarah Wright’s Party
Folklore 02
Cymons Party
Folklore 01
Kale
From The Conversations series
“This was taken on a houseboat in Kingsland Basin, Dalston. It’s pointless taking a picture of someone having a conversation – you can’t hear what they’re saying. The idea is that if you could hear what they’re saying you might not know what they’re talking about in any case. It’s to do with ideas of miscommunication, late night affairs, late night fictions.”
Fruit Machine @ Heaven
“I’ve ended up associated with gay culture because I get sent to these clubs and people like the work and send me back. They’re mad, these places, they party hard, really hard. I think I may get successful pictures because I’m sitting outside that scene. Sometimes something less familiar gets better results.”
Rock’n’Roll Torso
“This is of an unknown band, I don’t know what they were called, some bloke getting ragged performing at a studio in Elephant & Castle. If I’m taking a picture of something musical, whether it’s a club or live music, you have to work alongside the rhythm of the situation. You have to get involved in what you can hear. It ends up pushing you photographically in a certain direction.”
