ARTIST BIO
LAWRENCE MANNING
Lawrence Manning is a visual artist whose work builds upon his career as a professional photographer. He created thousands of images for commercial clients, specializing in lifestyle images honoring his love of working with people. Lawrence’s fine art photography is abstract and impressionistic, often rendering his subjects in an altered state of reality. His work attempts to create a dynamic between the documentary and the poetic.
Lawrence’s work has appeared in group shows locally and throughout the country in galleries which include Praxis Gallery, Verum Ultimum, Art Source, A Smith Gallery, PhotoPlace, SEC4P, Atlanta Photography Group, D’ART, Center for Photographic Art, Duncan Miller, and Boise Art Museum.
In 2011, the US Postal Service chose his photograph of the American flag out of a pool of thousands of entries, which was used on the “United We Stand” postage stamp, commemorating the events on 9/11. “Indiana Festivals,” a book of photographs of small-town festivals, was published by Indiana University in 1976.
After receiving his BA in English Literature from Indiana University in 1969, Lawrence served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Liberia and Ethiopia, where he began taking photographs. In 1976, he received his master’s degree in Instructional Technology from Indiana University and worked in Nigeria, West Africa. In 2000, he partnered with his wife, fine art painter and commercial art director, Betty Mallorca, to create Hill Street Studios, a multi-faceted media production company. In 2002, he was one of the founders of Blend Images, the first photographer-owned stock photography agency, specializing in commercial images of global ethnicities and lifestyles.
Lawrence is active in his community, serving as a commissioner for the city’s Arts and Historic Commission, and as a board member of the Downtown Nampa Community Association and Main Street America organizations.