Can one even speak of black and white photography here? If it didn’t sound so negative, certain parts of the work of the American photographer Ann Mandelbaum would have to be described as a world in gray. But this would possibly raise the suspicion that the recordings are dreary. And if Ann Mandelbaum’s often surreal and sometimes sculptural, extremely composed, often multiply exposed photographs are not, then they are sad. On the contrary: the work of the 77-year-old artist is so exciting, complex and highly emotional that it is second to none.
The fact that the Munich City Museum is now receiving 88 originals by Ann Mandelbaum from the period between 1989 and 2022 as a gift and can thus close the gap in the area of contemporary photography in the collection – which rests primarily on a historical foundation – is thanks to Ulrich Pohlmann. It can be described as the last great achievement of the previous head of the collection, because Pohlmann is retiring at the end of the year after three decades. But as early as the late 1990s, he brought an exhibition of photographic works by Ann Mandelbaum to the Stadtmuseum, laying the foundation for decades of ties between the internationally renowned photographer from New York and the Munich museum.
“The camera is truly a magical tool, more so than any other medium,” says Ann Mandelbaum, who has an artistic background in painting and sculpture. This “magic” corresponds to her artistic approach of working emotionally – which is astonishing for an artist who has taught photography for several decades. For four decades she has been working with the camera and plastic materials, using them to create her sculptural works. Analogue photography was followed by a brief epoch with digital compact cameras. The smartphone is now her tool, as she revealed during a conversation on the occasion of the donation handover in the city museum. But what does a tool mean anyway? When techniques such as sculpting, collage and drawing, photogram and multiple exposure go hand in hand? And since she has been working digitally, a little color has found its way into her visual worlds.
Mandelbaum uses the camera lens like a lover’s eye: exploring, tender, loving. And it doesn’t matter whether she photographs parts of the body such as eyes, lips, hands, feet, the base of the neck, hair or chin, skin, wrinkles and intimate zones, or arranges insects and objects, plays with latex casts – you always have to look closely to see see what is actually there. There is always a small piece of reality in her paintings, she says. But probably the largest part of her work is characterized by taking away and leaving out. And of many opposites. Soft meets hard, inside meets outside, intimate meets public, real meets surreal, figurative and representational meets abstract. This creates sensual illusions that initially caused him great irritation, as Ulrich Pohlmann recalls when he first encountered the work of Ann Mandelbaum. While contemporary photography is so focused on the documentary, Ann Mandelbaum’s devotion to illusion stands out. But the photographer is convinced: we are all fascinated by the illusion. Probably those who are reluctant to admit it.
The artist’s book “Matter” was published by Hatje Cantz to accompany the donation (53 euros).