Check Out Martha Manning’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Martha Manning.

Hi Martha, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I was always that kid with her film camera! My Dad is an artist and taught me how to shoot and process rolls of black and white film throughout my childhood. I am so thankful I grew up in an encouraging family that celebrates the arts, where I learned how to practice photography, make mistakes, learn from them, and keep going. I would never have had the courage to start my business without such a supportive family around me. Photography has always been a part of my life and who I am. I truly cannot imagine my life without creating art with my camera.

In high school, I enjoyed being a yearbook staff photographer and working in our school’s darkroom. I went on to minor in Technical Photography at Appalachian State University and then continued my studies with incredible artists and fashion photographers in Vancouver, Canada. I am forever indebted to James Emler, my mentor while living in Vancouver, who taught me to take the steps and fulfill my dream of making art into an actual job.

So here I am now, 20 years into doing the thing that I always knew I wanted to do. It has taken many different forms, from the fashion world to photojournalism to weddings, even to personal projects with my Hasselblad medium format film camera that may never see the light of day. As long as I get to create and capture the beauty I see in the world, I find this such fulfilling work.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I laugh when I think about how absolutely unsmooth the road actually is! Hard work is never easy. Doing something I love makes it all worth it. I have learned to never say never, as my Mom always told me! I swore off weddings as a young college student only to find myself loving weddings and shooting 40+ a year for a while. I’ve thrived being on my own island as a business owner, and have also loved collaborating with other artists through the years. There have been crazy successes that I never saw coming, as well as complete exhaustion and a sense that giving up and getting a “normal job” would just make my life easier. One of the greatest things I have learned is to surround myself with incredible friends and other artists who can be trusted with the hard questions, fears and frustrations, who will always lift each other up and keep it real (you know who you are and I love you!). I also have an incredibly gifted husband who has helped me with the dance of running a small business and juggling growing kids, their sports and all the in between.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My work is primarily in capturing life moments for people such as weddings, special events, family sessions, or milestones in their lives. My specialty is creating photographs for them that will take them back and remind them of those times – the youthfulness of their faces when they were married, the joys of holding their newborn, the seconds that fall in between the smiling-at-the-camera poses. I am an incredibly sentimental artist, so my hope is that you see this in my work. I cannot help but put my heart and soul into my photographs with a sense that there is sentimental value in what I give people. I am most proud of the history of creative artists in my family who have lead me to this path, and I think this sets me apart from others as an artist. Even to this day, I can still hear my Dad’s voice in my mind guiding me on how to set the light meter and manual focus in my film camera. Seeing through a camera lens is as easily a part of me as walking down a trail. I simply cannot imagine life without creating photographs.

Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
I have learned that I cannot give up and that people will always need art in their lives even (or especially) during a pandemic. I will always be creating and it may look different from one decade to the next, but it is all worth it. I’ve also learned to take time and space to listen to the quiet, to be still and observe the world around me, and to get strength from prayer and meditation in order to be able to create. As I look forward to many more years as a photographer, I am growing by collaborating with other artists to help work toward justice and healing in this world.

Contact Info:

• Email: martha@marthamanning.com
• Website: www.marthamanning.com
• Instagram: @marthamanningphoto