'ABALONE SHELL' BY JACK MANNIX

ABALONE SHELL

BY JACK MANNIX

Photographer Jack Mannix presents ‘Abalone Shell’, a new exhibition of previously unseen images

from 2023-2026.

"I can’t explain the connection between these images - it’s subconscious, psychic. They create a context for each other that reads like the storyboard for a film - a film that exists in the imagination of the audience and is different for each viewer. Maybe they awaken a memory or forge a new one, real or imagined. Maybe it’s as simple as colours and light. These photographs are all moments from my life, but they also feel strange and uncanny, supernatural." - Jack Mannix

"There’s something that feels psychedelic about the appearance of nacre, which is the name of the opalescent material that lines the Abalone Shell. It is the same material that pearls are made of, and it builds up in flat layers over time, becoming incredibly strong. This iridescent quality is also found in fish scales, dragonfly wings, frog skin and the surface of gasoline. Nacre appears iridescent because the thickness of the layers is similar to the wavelength of visible light, whatever that means. I don’t understand it and I don’t want to. The same way that I don’t understand how light frequencies through glass create perfect images on film. It’s magic." - Jack Mannix