Torn: An Interview with Manuela Thames by Amy Parrish
Transported. That’s how I felt while reviewing a portfolio by Manuela Thames at the Promoting Passion Conference in Tucson last spring. Spread across the table were hauntingly beautiful prints from her series, Torn. Monochromatic images (old and new, digital and analog) had been ripped and reassembled into eighteen diptychs, positioning each fragment within a new context.
In this work, Thames scratches at emotion with a kinetic visual energy that can feel both unsettled and remarkably soothing. Gesture and place draw together dichotomies of history, of connection, of land, of memory. Her expressions are both familiar and otherworldly.
It was during our brief meeting that Thames mentioned this collection was in response to her family history in Germany and the present Ukrainian war. Now, months later, her photographs continue to move me. I wanted to share her work and learn even more.
