Why manylaughs?

You’ve probably figured out by now this isn’t a comedy site. My apologies if you came here looking for a laugh, though you might get some from my work.

manylaughs* is my nickname, given to me by my clever partner. I tend to have a lot of different laughs – some short and chuckley, some snickery, some sharp, some loud and almost guffawly. I have many laughs and I use them all.

manylaughs is also my ‘net handle, my moniker, and I have a bunch of reasons for using it in my photography instead of my real name.

First, I’m not hiding. If you look hard enough, you’ll figure out who I am. I’m not trying to catfish anyone. But you have to look beyond the name and your first impression of my work is without my identity involved, and that’s the important point.

I use manylaughs because I want to remove identity from my photography. I want the viewer to see the work, not the person.

Why?

There are some very good artistic reasons for this. When you meet someone for the first time, you make decisions about that person based on their appearance. That’s just human nature.

If you see an artist, you make certain decisions about their work, too. Whether consciously or unconsciously, an artist’s identity influences a viewer’s impression of the artist’s work.

Imagine if you didn’t know if a work of art was done by a male or female. Do you think art produced by men would still be worth more as a general rule than art produced by women?

That’s just one example. The same applies to so many things you know about an artist. Judgements are made, consciously and unconsciously, about a person’s appearance or even just their names, all things that, in my opinion, are usually not factors in the art being produced.

I don’t want the viewer to infuse my photos with those kinds of preconceptions. I want people to see the work as uninfluenced by the identity of the creator as possible.

Associating their identity with their work makes absolute sense for many artist, it doesn’t for me, though. Simply put, the work I create should stand alone uninfluenced by my identity.

So there you go – manylaughs. That’s the reason for the site name.

* That’s not a typo, though you’re sure to find too many of those on the site – I’m a horrible proofreader. manylaughs is intentionally lower case somewhat in keeping with tech style and e e cummings. I’m small i kinda person.

Really? Is anything so important about this site the title needs to be capitalized?