About Mary Mansey
"Mary Mansey’s beautifully abstract photographs examine the interplay of light and color as they reflect against the rippling surface of water. These reflections poetically mirror the artist’s own emotions experienced at the time at which each photograph was captured.
Mansey’s photographs portray the tenuous stillness of water, a delicate peace easily disturbed and altered, underscoring the fragility of nature as a whole. Mansey’s images of a natural landscape element possess an otherworldly quality, echoing the artist’s desire to portray the "double mirror"aspect of the water. Her photographs encourage the imagination to flow, envisioning for a quiet moment another world just beneath the surface.
Mary Mansey’s fascination with color, light, and water began as a child, when she was profoundly struck by the beauty of the Mediterranean Sea. Today, the award-winning photographer lives and works in France and has exhibited her work in Italy, Germany, New York, and Los Angeles."
Press Release, Agora Gallery, September 2008
"Mansey’s representations of water act as strange symphonies of fluctuating forms and ripples. Sailboats, trees and houses become streams of color that oscillate with the water and serenity, stillness, and movement coexist.
Mansey, who is intimately familiar with the Mediterranean, has thoughtfully observed light’s play on water in infinitely diverse contexts. She finds the contemplative, sublime character of reflections fascinating because of their emotive potential. Even though she never uses human figures, Mansey’s photographs are ultimately more about people than about nature. The ripples and reflections represent ephemeral, passing moments that can be briefly perceived by the camera or human eye. Our relationship with nature, Mansey suggests, is fragile and temporal. We prolong the momentary emotional resonance of natural phenomena through memories and images. Mansey’s work invites us to contemplate our own interactions with the world around us and to feel, even if only momentarily, a transcendent inner serenity.
Mansey has exhibited her photography in Europe, Los Angeles and New York. She lives and works in Aix les Bains in the French Alps."
ArtIsSpectrum Magazine, October 2008
Mary Mansey's statement:
The Mediterranean Sea—with its streams of color, its light, its reflections—has fascinated me since I was a child. Water continues to be the main source of inspiration. Water is constantly changing and I seek to capture its many forms, before they disappear, in my photography.
While nature is the starting point, abstraction is the goal. I capture the natural world only to enhance it through careful manipulation with digital imaging software. My multi-layered images begin with a single photo, which is transformed and sometimes combined with other photographs. The goal is to achieve the expressiveness of painting through the artistic treatment of the images. Even though I never use human figures, my photographs are ultimately more about people than about nature. The ripples and reflections represent ephemeral, passing moments that can be briefly perceived by the camera or human eye.