PHOTO / The Manipulator

The Manipulator

THE MANIPULATOR was born in 1984 into a world of analog photography, almost unimaginable today: no cellphones, no internet, no Photoshop, no digital cameras. In those quondam times, it was the cordless phone, the fax machine, the colour-copier and the Apple IIc that defined the technologically-savvy.

These were the golden years of independent publishing. The once-rigid separation between commercial and fine-art photography was fast collapsing and some of the most exciting, new work began appearing, not on gallery walls, but in magazine editorials and advertising campaigns. With the drama of photographic aesthetics being played out on so egalitarian a stage, everyone was soon spectator, analyst, arbitrator and fan.