Paho Mann: Latent Constructions
Opening June 24, 2023, is Latent Constructions, a solo exhibition of works by Paho Mann, presented by Galleri Urbane. The show will consist of 8 digitally constructed still-life prints made with 3D scanning software and photographs. Using this state-of-the-art technology, Mann creates abstract images of 19th and 20th-century cameras and flowers as a metaphor for the constant transition of photographic and imaging technology. The exhibition collapses the boundaries between perceptions into a single experience.
Through manipulating 3D scanning software, Mann shows all angles of a still life in a single image. The prints are a composite of photographs and intermediary images meant to be used by the computer — never meant to be seen by humans. Abstractions of the objects before the camera, the images compress the dimensionality of the reality we exist in.
"I've always been interested in the relationship between technology and how we think about and understand our world," Mann said.
Among the objects Mann scanned for this series are obsolete imaging technologies, cameras, cellphones, broken lenses, other photographic tools, and used materials like empty glass bottles and cans. Mann places outdated technology and post-consumer content in his images to elucidate the continuous advancement of technology. "There is a tentative relationship between old and new — one replacing the other, but always going through a similar cycle," Mann said. "The new technology displaces the old, reflecting a turbulent relationship between the two," he wrote in a statement for the show.
Contrary to the instantaneous act of seeing multiple vantage points at once, Mann's process of making these works is painstakingly slow. In his studio, he imports tens and sometimes hundreds of images from 3D scans into Photoshop, a traditional 2D image editing software. From the 3D software, he amalgamates all the photographs of his still-life arrangements into single images. Reflecting on his manipulations, Mann said, "intervening in the process before the final work was made is important.
Near-obsolete technologies come into contact with those which are the most progressive. As these historic cameras become more disused, so do the ways that they claim to represent the world. Mann calls attention to how lens-based media only mediates but never truly represents reality. The exhibition collapses the boundaries between perceptions into a single experience. Doing this, he says, "these images serve as metaphors for the constant transition of photographic and imaging technology."
A visual conversation, Latent Constructions precludes what the human eye and computer can see and instead challenges the viewer. Mann's textures produce abstraction from the real, leaving the fragments to form a visual artifact. He takes the viewer away from photography's traditional fixed vantage point to show more than one possibility of reality or truth.