Movement at the Still Point: An Ode to Dance by Mark Mann

[MGrayson]

Mark Mann is releasing a book of portraits of dancers. Most dancers have both still and action shots. (Website, Amazon Link)

I have three of the images printed 43" high on my wall, although you can see much more through the links above. The dancers' images are all natural light, Leica S(007), S 120/2.5, if that matters. (My picture below is X2D, XCD 45, but that's really irrelevant!)


This is a COVID story of a large group of performers with nothing to do, and a photographer looking for new subjects. The project started small and spread by word-of-mouth. As you can tell by the three pictures on my wall, it grew to include some truly amazing artists.

 

[Shashin]

Thanks for that. Beautiful work.

Interestingly enough, it is also a homage to the history of photography, specifically to Philippe Halsman's Jump Book. You have a splash of Irving Penn (the backdrops) and 19th photography.

 

[MGrayson]

Thanks for that. Beautiful work.

Interestingly enough, it is also a homage to the history of photography, specifically to Philippe Halsman's Jump Book. You have a splash of Irving Penn (the backdrops) and 19th photography.

The backdrop, I am told, is quite deliberate.

 

[Shashin]

The backdrop, I am told, is quite deliberate.

Yes, Penn had done that in his portraiture work as well, where the illusion of the studio was broken by having the backdrop clearly indicated in the overall space.