Digital Image Cafe Photographer Profile
Robert Mann - Philadelphia, PA

It was just five years ago that long time Philadelphia resident, Robert Mann, got his first home PC and internet connection. Since he didn't do much with his machine besides take surveys, play solitaire and surf, he got himself a little Polaroid. And, he says, "I was hooked...because of my fascination with the instance of production of an image from a camera to a computer screen."

Rob began his photographic quest by taking pictures of murals in Philadelphia. He sent newsletters that included photos and background information about the urban art to nearly 3 dozen people. To date, he has shot over 300 murals, with 2000 to go just in the city of Philly.

On September 5, 2002, Rob took a picture which to him was extremely significant. "On one of my lunch hours with my first Fuji, I took a picture of a building that was being demolished," he says. "On the side of the building was a mural that happened to have the title 'Symbolic Building of a City.' The irony of the demolition and the wrecking ball crane in the shot was not lost on me," he adds. He submitted the picture to a number of contest sites and was rewarded with multiple wins.

Rob met a number of photographers when he joined Sony Image Station, but he believes Gerda Grice was the one who introduced him to the Cafe. He won his first POTD within a week of joining. According to Rob, "the best part of the Cafe POTD process has always been the feedback received for a POTD. It is very healthy for the photography community to have an outlet for help with all the various aspects of digital photography, as well as a place where items of concern to the community can be discussed and information given to help others." However, Rob feels that he has been most greatly influenced by the Cafe images, themselves, and the details given by the photographers about their images.

Rob says that the smartest thing that he's ever done in regards to his digitial photography was joining and becoming a member of not only the Café, but DPChallenge, as well. He feels that DPChallenge it has done exactly what its name says: Challenge. Much of his best work since has come as a result of shooting subjects he never would have thought of doing for one of the challenges. He is nearing 300 challenges there and intends to keep at it because it helps to broaden his photographic horizons.

The two photographers that have influenced Rob the most are Gerda Grice and Don Lambert. He believes that both are more knowledgeable than he in terms of photography basics, and this expertise has been of great help to him. He also feels that they have the innate ability to see something that might be considered everyday and transform it into something well composed, interesting and creative.

Though his job as a supervisor for a major insurance company is not directly related to his photography, many of Rob's pictures have been taken in and around the areas where he has worked. A true artist at heart, Rob has played a variety of musical instruments, has done some theater, and has studied singing for over 20 years. He sings in a church choir and has been a member of the Singing City Choir of Philadelphia for 18 years.

These days, this single guy in the City of Brotherly Love, is most fascinated with architectural abstracts. Lucky for him, he lives and works where the architecture is extremely varied and old and new exist side by side. Rob realizes that the possibilities are endless, "But, when it all comes together, I just look on in bemused wonder...and then more bemused than ever, I say frantically, 'Oh great! Now what am I going to shoot next....ooooooo! Look at that!'"