2008 Second Edition Hot Shot John Mann

Hot Shot John Mann's New Year is off to a great start. His photograph Untitled (Libya) is up for grabs on igavel and he'll have work up at the JB Gallery with his fellow Hot Shots at the end of the month, adding to the list of exhibitions he racked up in 2008. What's next for Mr. Mann? We'll just have to wait and see....

From:
I did my growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, after a bit of time living in Virginia. I now live in Florida, but thankfully some distance from Disney.

Formal and/or informal education and training:
I got into photography through skateboarding, mostly as a way to make images of what we were up to. I took classes during high school in photography and offset printing. I later got a degree in photography and printmaking from Arizona State University and an MFA in photography at the University of New Mexico.

How you pay the bills:
I keep the lights on with a job teaching photography at Florida State University. The job offers a great deal of time/support for making art, and this has been great for my production.

Best advice you ever received as a photographer (and/or as a human):
"Remember to breathe."

Top 3 Favorite Artists:
Dieter Appelt
Giorgio Morandi
Andrei Tarkovsky

Photograph (or other work of art) that you can't get out of your head, ever:

Jacques Henri Lartigue's In My Room: Collection of My Racing Cars, 1905

Reading now:
Reading the New Yorker keeps me pretty busy, but Bill Bryson's The Lost Continent sits next to the bed with a bookmark in it.

Top 3 photo-related websites/blogs:
The Year in Pictures - an interesting commentary on photography in the art world.
Photograph Mag - a great resource
Flak Photo - a great way to see who is coming up in the photo world

Top 3 non-photo websites/blogs:
Strange Maps
Ed Templeton's skate/art blog