Douglas Mandry (*1989, CH) is an artist who lives and works in Zurich. He gained a Bachelors in both Visual Communication and Photography from the University of Art and Design ECAL in Lausanne. Since graduating Mandry has been nominated for numerous awards including the Paul Huf Award, Swiss Federal Design Award and got awarded as Foam Talent 2020.
Read MoreHis work has been shown in international venues including Photo London, Photo Basel, Unseen Photo Fair, Foam Museum Amsterdam or Kunstmuseum Wien. Bildhalle dedicated two solo shows in 2016 and 2018 to his work, a next solo show is planned in November 2020.
Mandry's practice is a direct response to the digitalisation of photography and the technological accelerations that came along with it. Always shooting his initial images in analogue, all of Mandry's interventions in the image are done by hand, through the application of different historic photographic pro- cesses or by physically cutting and pasting.
Seductively beautiful in the use of color, the diversity of form and the choice of materials while, simultaneously, being conceptually sophisticated in terms of subject-matters and photographic processes: the starting points for the artist Douglas Mandry (b. 1989 in Geneva), who has moved to Zurich in 2013, are real world phenomena and experimenting with various photographic techniques. Oscillating between historical analogue and con- temporary digital imaging methods, the artist creates his very own pictorial worlds.
Observations in nature and the examination of current issues merge in his work with his reflections regarding his chosen medium photography - documentation with abstraction, reasoning with sensuality. Conceptual rigor and experimental liberties are well balanced in Douglas Mandry's work, and the autonomous nature of photographic processes bears serendipitous results: the unforeseen meets intention and idea. This way, complex issues receive poetic allure. Each work retains a productive riddle that encourages us to question our perception of the reality of the world and the reality of images.
By Nadine Olonetzky
