MP3 Volume II: Curtis Mann, John Opera, Stacia Yeapanis

The second installment of the Midwest Photographers Publication Project (MP3), produced in collaboration with the Aperture Foundation, presents the work of three contemporary photographers: Curtis Mann, John Opera, and Stacia Yeapanis.

For his series Modifications, Curtis Mann seemingly creates a fictional archive of found images. Mann collects and compiles other people’s photographs, which he then alters through a varnish and bleach process and then hand paints or draws over.

John Opera’s landscape images explore the transcendentalist notion of the importance of the individual soul and the acquisition of self-knowledge via the divinity of nature. By contrasting and pairing figuration and geometric abstractions, Opera probes the powerful links between emotion, intellect, and perception.

Stacia Yeapanis’s large body of work is represented by two projects: My Life as a Sim, 2005–2007, which explores and documents the life of an avatar, and Everybody Hurts, 2004–2008, a collection of embroidered screen capture images of television characters caught in dramatically emotional moments.

Contributions by MoCP staff include essays by former Director Rod Slemmons, current Executive Director Natasha Egan, Curator and Associate Director Karen Irvine.

Published by Aperture and the Museum of Contemporary Photography, 2009, three hardcover books in a slipcase, 56 pages each, 8.75 x 8 inches.