MEET MANUELA THAMES - Get To Know Your Instructors!
Our Instructor team is made up of a bunch of talented photographers with a huge variety of skills, personalities and interests. Each one of our Instructors are passionate about photography and are all hands on deck when it comes to teaching their workshops. They spend countless hours getting to know you and understanding where in your photography journey you are.
But what about their journey? Read on as we take a dive into their worlds, and get to know your Instructors …
Manuela joined our Gather Instructor team in 2019, bringing with her a wealth of experience in fine-art self-portraiture. Her work has been exhibited internationally and she has contributed to numerous photography publications over the years. Her self-portraiture work is undoubtedly emotive and deeply moving, and has even caught the eye of the amazing Brooke Shaden!!! In this interview, she shares with our gather community a little more about her self, something beyond the self portraits we usually associate her with.
MEET MANUELA THAMES
Where in the world are you, and what can you see right now?
I currently live in Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA, though I was born and raised in Germany. Our winters here are long, but as I am sitting at my desk in front of the open window, feeling the warm spring breeze on my face, I am looking out on our street, lined with big beautiful trees. I love my neighborhood!
When you are not busy photographing, what else might you be doing in your spare time?
I love walking in the woods and listening to the sounds of nature. Despite living in a pretty big city, nature is so accessible here: lots of hiking, mountain biking and skiing in the winter. I also enjoy writing and reading poetry, and the occasional binge watching of a good show.
I love meeting up with friends, going out for drinks and dinner, enjoying live music (before the pandemic), and during the summer I love going on road trips with my family.
Tell us one thing about you that often surprises people?
I think what surprises people about me sometimes is that I can be funny and that I love to laugh.
They see my art and the way I write about it and it comes across as dark and depressing and emotional, and it is. I am pretty open about my mental health struggles and my struggles with life in general, but certain people and friends get to see my funny and spontaneous side pretty regularly. :)
What’s the first career you dreamed of having as a kid?
Veterinarian and actress, I can't remember which one came first.
Tell us a bit about your journey, your photographic style and what you love to photograph?
I am self taught and came to photography after the birth of my first son. You might think that taking pictures of my kids got me into it, but I actually started out with landscape and self portraits. My husband faithfully took pictures of our kids, while I ventured out to experiment with the camera and photograph my surroundings and myself. I have always felt drawn to the process of self portraiture, of being behind and in front of the camera. Maybe I am sort of living out my childhood dream of becoming an actress.
Self portraiture has helped me a lot to process my emotions and thoughts about life. My pictures are often described as contemplative, evocative, dark and cinematic and I think that's a pretty accurate description. I used to be entirely drawn to black and white photography, but have been embracing more color in recent years. Besides self portraiture, I also love taking photographs of others.
Whose work has influenced you most?
In my early years of my photographic journey, I was introduced to Harry Callahan and loved his minimalistic style, but felt particularly drawn to his portraits of his wife.
A few years later, I believe it was Francesca Woodman's work that inspired me the most and influenced my self portraits, but I am also a big fan of Joyce Tenneson's early self portraits. In recent years, I have found many photographers through Instagram whose work I greatly admire and draw inspiration from.
Can you share your favourite photograph (that you created), and tell us some more about it?
The above photo is one of my favorites I have ever taken! I think it has to do with the experience I had while taking it. It was actually in the middle of winter, but it was an unusually mild day. I went to one of my favorite spots along the river and took my camera and tripod with me. I put on some white clothes and ran around barefoot taking photographs. It was still pretty chilly and very muddy. When I discovered the tree, I knew I had to take a picture of myself sitting in it. I positioned my tripod and timer and ran back and forth to get the settings right and test the lighting. I just remember feeling invigorated and free and so happy, despite feeling cold and running around in the mud. I think that sometimes the best pictures come from "suffering" through the shoot to get what you want. The experience of creating is, in my opinion, more important and fulfilling than enjoying the results from it.
When I run around in nature, get dirty, struggle, get uncomfortable and even feel pain to get a certain shot, those are the times when I feel most alive!
Photography is not always easy, right?! What do you find is your biggest struggle with it?
My biggest struggle is going through a creative block and staying committed to doing the work anyways. There are times where I feel like I am exploding with creativity and it's wonderful, but then there are times where I honestly feel like a complete beginner and can't come up with any ideas. The challenge is to continue to believe in myself and to keep working, to come up with the courage to create bad work and to try something new, even if the result is not what you envision.
If you could take a photograph of anyone in the world (past or present, famous or not) who would it be?
This is hard to answer. There are so many people I would love to photograph, most of them are fellow photographers I know through Instagram. I think it would be so cool to meet some of them and model for each other.
THIS OR THAT …
Dogs or Cats? Both. We have a dog and two cats.
Call or Text? It depends on the circumstances, but I get easily annoyed with texting, especially when I am trying to make plans with someone. I think talking is so much easier.
Coffee or Tea? I love my one cup of coffee every morning and enjoy tea in the winter.
Winter or Summer? Both. I think all seasons have their own beauty and things to look forward to. I just wish that the winter here was a bit shorter, but in general I don't mind the cold weather.
Introvert or Extrovert? I am an introvert that loves being with people. When I was younger, I could spend endless amounts of time on my own and loved it, but I think I have become more social over the years, also more comfortable in bigger groups etc. However, I still need my alone time to recharge.
Manuela teaches her self-portraiture workshop ‘Telling Your Own Story Through Self-Portraiture’ a few times each year and is currently in the process of writing her second workshop! Be sure to register for you newsletter to be informed of when it next runs!
Keen to delve into more of Manuela’s incredible work? You can explore more of her personal work on her website here http://www.manuelathames.com/
And did you know she also takes on client portraiture work too?! Visit her site here to see more of what she can create: http://manuelathamesphotography.com/
Want to get social? Follow Manuela on Instagram @manuelathames and on Facebook at Manuela Thames Photography
