From the Blog

Jan
25
Posted by manale at 5:15 pm

I have been scanning an old set of family photos my mom gave to me and have found it to be quite cathartic. I really enjoy seeing my grandparents when they were my age out doing fun things. As I have gotten older I have taken a greater appreciation in my family’s history and some of the cool things they have passed down through the generations. Growing up I didn’t have a very big family. It was basically just me and my brother and my mom most of the time, we would go spend weekends with my dad but that was pretty much it. I really like to see my history and aspire to be better about staying in touch with my family and keeping us together. Here are two of my favorite shots of my grandfather while they were on their honeymoon.

©alexandermanning.com

©alexandermanning.com

I have a very fond memory of my grampa where we would go to visit him in Portland and we of course love candy. Anyway he knew that we loved candy and would put a bowl of candy on the dining room table with a catch. He would put a shrunken head next to it. I don’t know where he got the shrunken head but I do remember being terrified of it and it was always a chore to get that candy. Anyway I’ll probably post more photos as they get scanned.

 

Jan
13
Posted by manale at 12:42 pm

I took this photo when I went to the museum of glass in Tacoma Washington during the new years trip. I like the framing and the subject matter of dads with their kids watching trains.

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Jan
11
Posted by manale at 10:51 am

I have been slacking in making posts for awhile now. The Holidays consume a lot of time as does work. I am using this blog to try to inspire myself but I think that it is pretty telling where my mind is that I cannot inspire even myself.

The week before christmas I took a trip with my work to El Paso/Juarez. It was one of the final shoots for our “Americas Longest War” Documentary. We interviewed Dr. Tony Payan at UTEP, City Council Member Suzie Bird and a Journalist Sandra Rodriguez at El Diaro in Juarez. It was a truly profound trip. The cities of El Paso and Juarez are pretty unique in that they butt right up next to each other and have lived as siblings for a long time. Recently however with the NARCO fighting in Juarez, El Paso has receded quite a bit from the friendly relations it once had with Juarez.

The people and things we saw in Juarez affected me very deeply. I saw some of the most intense poverty I have seen in my life, some of the most violent things I have ever seen in my life, but also some of the most beautiful and bizarre places I have seen in my life. We heard about and met people who have been unfairly caught up in this terrible war like photographer Luis Carlos Santiago.

We went all over the city with a driver we hired and got some fantastic imagery.  It is a trip that I will never forget. Which is a good thing and a bad thing. Below is a view looking back at el paso from just under the bible sign in Juarez. Photo courtesy of Paul Feine.

Dec
15
Posted by manale at 2:20 pm

I have just returned from a work trip to San Francisco to interview the author of the book “To Die in Mexico: Dispatches from inside the Drug War”, John Gibler. We interviewed him next door to the city lights bookstore, which is the bookstore made famous by the beats, at a place called Vesuvios.

 

He was well spoken and a great addition to our Drug War documentary. Here is my view during the Gibler interview.

 

Next week we are heading to El Paso/Juarez to film various people and things related to our Drug War Documentary. It should be an exciting trip.

Dec
12
Posted by manale at 4:48 pm

Kim and I went to Big Bear last weekend and had a great time. There was snowboarding, hiking, bobsledding and all sorts of other types of tomfoolery. Here are a few photos from the hike I went on.


Dec
09
Posted by manale at 5:56 pm

It is the end of the week here in Los Angeles. It has been busy at home with our roommate moving out and the holidays rapidly approaching, and equally busy at work gearing up for the Juarez shoot, a trip to San Francisco next week and submitting the Abandoned in Guatemala doc to festivals. I have revisited some of the footage from our trip to Guatemala and I am still moved by what a profound experience it was. Everyone welcomed us with open arms and we witnessed things I don’t think many get to witness. The sites and sounds of that place will live with me forever. Here is a photo from the Hogar Solidario

Kim and I are headed up to Big Bear Lake to spend some time with her brother and his fiance and some of their friends. I will post some photos from the trip when I get a chance. I really need to figure out a good video plugin for wordpress.

Nov
26
Posted by manale at 12:08 pm

Thank you to everyone who made our special day very special. Stay tuned for some photo galleries and other various tidbits. Today we are heading to see USC beat ucla.

Nov
21
Posted by manale at 7:33 pm

What a day! Everything was amazing and went through without a hitch. Thanks to everyone who was there and made the best day of my life possible.

I pulled this photo from a friends Facebook page. Yuko iwamoto took this wonderful photo.

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Nov
10

My fiance is home and I am happy that she is safe and that she had a good time. My life has been a bit of a roller coaster since I left Brooks Institute almost four years ago. My life has been filled with a series of profound moments and events, that have changed me drastically from who I was as a younger man. I have hung out with some of the coolest people in the world, seen some interesting things, and had some fantastic experiences. I have suffered some hardships as well, but looking back I have had a pretty great life so far.

I guess I am reflecting on the past because I am getting married in about a week and it is a really big deal to me. It means a lot to me to have met and fallen in love with Kim, because she appreciates many of the same things I do. She has the same taste for adventure and is an inspiration to me. I guess what I am trying to say is that things have been great for me and they only ever seem to get better.

I am uploading a small gallery of images I took at Buringman this year. I am doing so because it was the exact time that I realized what a great life I have lived.

I was standing on the Playa watching the sun set behind the mountains and I felt at peace with the world. Nothing could touch me and all of my troubles washed away. It was a pretty wonderful thing.