Scarlet Mann
Portrait courtesy Scarlet Mann
Art Photographer Scarlet Mann, talks to Sydney Suh about her journey into photography, her cross country road trip and her body of work America and I: A Conversation With Reality and the Elusive Dream
I remember a point during high school where I would walk into random galleries, trying to get an internship. At the place I would end up working, I sat at a metal desk in front of Scarlet Mann’s LIBERTY, Montauk, NY, a photographic representation of the ideas she investigated during the year-long road trip she took with her family across the United States. The shot depicts a completely nude figure in a gas mask, standing in a lake amidst tall, wispy grass that almost seems to hide the subject, forcing the viewer’s intrigue about the seemingly inexplicable circumstances Mann creates in her work. Upon observing a more holistic catalog of her prints, soft, muted tones and thoughtful compositions came to characterize Mann’s practice for me, all the while constituting eerily graceful scenes, those of which initially drew me to her as an artist.
Scarlet spent her childhood in a small town in Arkansas, a lifestyle to which she compares to the images in Immediate Family by Sally Mann, a book by one of her most prominent influences. “We climbed up mountains, ran on railroad tracks, we were on adventures all the time; there was so much freedom,” she recollects. Scarlet revisits the social dynamics she experienced at a young age, conveying that she often felt out of place in the communities she was a part of, pushing her to gravitate towards fashion and modeling as a means of gaining confidence through performing acts that emphasized her own individuality. “When I dressed how I wanted to, I lit up…I opened up. People seemed to accept me more because I was being more charismatic, I guess,” Mann states. Eventually, these feelings of self-assuredness gave rise to her continuous work in the modeling industry. When asked how she initially became interested in photography, Mann responds, “I used to teach runway and makeup courses at modeling schools, which don’t really exist anymore. One day, the photographer couldn’t make it, so the CEO handed me the camera and told me to shoot the class. It was a lot of fun, and I realized I liked to make other women feel confident in themselves, to make them feel beautiful.” This prompted a fascination with photography, which led her to subsequently unenroll from architecture school and pursue a career in the arts. By her early twenties, Mann relocated to London and began scouting models, helping them get signed to agencies and conducting photo shoots to add to their portfolios. Upon returning to LA, Mann herself was asked to model nude for a photography workshop taught by artist Greg Gorman, to which she accepted. She states that this caused her to feel some initial apprehension towards the project, however once completely stripped and vulnerable, she recalls how she felt empowered, experiencing a sort of alignment within herself. “All of a sudden, I was no longer grappling with this fear of being an outsider looking in. I finally understood that everyone in this room felt a version of the imposter syndrome I experience,” she states. Mann speaks fondly of participating in Gorman’s workshops, describing that she existed in an atmosphere that produced many points of artistic inspiration with an abundance of creative energy from the other artists she was surrounded by.
In 2018, Mann and her family embarked on a cross-country road trip, starting in southern California and traveling east. During this time, she created a body of work entitled America and I: A Conversation With Reality and the Elusive Dream. The series consists of a combination of nude self-portraits in natural landscapes, along with still life documentation of the states they visited. Here, Mann explores the raw and unpleasant truths behind achieving financial and personal success in America, and how they translate into a lifestyle of gritty hardship that is endured across the United States. She conveys the dramatic impact of witnessing widespread poverty and degradation across the country, demonstrating how the supposed ideals of America stand in stark juxtaposition to the harsh day-to-day reality they often construct. The titles of the individual images involve the philosophical tenets America asserts it stands for, while the content alludes to the vastness of the country itself and the pregnable positions people are subjected to as they chase their own version of the American dream. The overt nudity in her work provides a physical representation of this vulnerability, creating a dialogue between Mann’s own distinctive experiences and those shared by many Americans as they attempt to filter the hate, bigotry, and toxic environments that persist in the U.S, as referenced by the consistent use of the gas mask.
Additionally, Mann mentions the details of her artistic process, explaining that she first defines an aesthetic that intrigues her, expanding outwardly from a single visual concept. As ideas begin to form in the back of her mind, she takes note of what inspires her, and experiments with her predetermined aesthetic photographically, staging various shoots to understand the visual components she wants to achieve. In moments of silence, Mann is able to conceptualize the meaning behind her projects. The practice of art-making, she describes, is a way of “co-creating with some outside force, the universe, whatever you want to call it. The course that our artwork takes is never entirely up to us.” Consequently, perfectionism persists as one of the greatest obstacles to Mann’s creative process, which she describes as a combination of insecurity and the need for control, which ultimately contributes to stagnation. She remarks that her proudest endeavors ensue when she is able to relinquish perfectionistic behavior, rather allowing the artwork to “become” itself as her thoughts and ideas progress in development. In attempts to quell her inner perfectionist, Mann tries to regularly engage in atelic activities, which she defines as “things you do for the sake of doing them, like playing piano, or learning a language for fun.” This allows her to become content with the notion of her creative process unfolding naturally, rather than trying to meticulously govern each facet of its outcome.
In 2013, Mann had her first exhibition after previously performing mostly commercial work, and has continued to show her images as a fine art photographer ever since in locations such as Miami, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. She is currently in the midst of creating an ongoing project called GIRLS, where she explores the lived experience behind feminine insecurity and vulnerability. Mann states that the atmosphere of the shoots for this series resemble youthful sessions of playing dress-up, providing an environment that promotes artistic freedom, authenticity, and confidence. The exhibition will include her photographs, as well as audio clips that encompass the models speaking about the thoughts or emotions occurred for them during the shoots, and is projected to be on view by the end of this year.
Interview: Sydney Suh
