Foldings (Guided Tour, Golan Heights)

Based in Chicago and educated in mechanical engineering, Mann uses a particular type of found photograph as his source material: amateur snapshots made by tourists to divided places or political hotspots, who then post their pictures for any and all to see on photo-sharing websites such as Flickr. Mann first prints the downloaded image on photographic paper, applying a layer of clear varnish to the figures and details he wishes to preserve. He then dips parts of the sheet into trays of bleach that destroy the top layer of gelatin and allow the various layers of dye to burn away in flamelike colors.

The results merge image and object in a fiery blaze that seems to be literally boiling over—not necessarily a subjective way of looking at a political tinderbox such as the Golan Heights, the subject of this example. It cannot be accidental that here the eroded surface yields a Rorschach-like design, where a plethora of individuated perspectives—those of the original photographer, the tourists taking still and moving pictures in the original image, the artist who manipulates the image, and the viewer of the final work—is woven together without being resolved.