Manuel Vason is an artist and independent researcher practising photography as a philosophical prism through which to engage with others, reflect on the self, and expand the imaginal. In particular, he considers the act of photographing as a durational performance of focusing attention on the appearance of things and events with the intention of keeping them alive. In 2019, Vason completed a PhD at the University for Creative Arts (UK) investigating the frictional interdependency between photography and performance art.
Born in Padua (Italy) in 1974, Vason assisted some of the most celebrated fashion photographers of his generation in Milan, New York, Paris, and London. While contributing to mainstream magazines like ID, Italian Vogue, Dazed & Confused, and Sunday Times he developed a passion for Performance Art. It was pointing the camera toward the ‘ephemeral action’ that urged Vason to adopt a more critical and accountable approach to the medium and to position himself in front as well as behind the lens. Since 1999, Vason has collaborated with more than 250 international performance artists, published seven books, and exhibited in numerous institutions such as Tate Liverpool, Arnolfini Gallery (Bristol), Power Station of Art (Shanghai), Centro Cultural GAM (Santiago), Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, Centro Municipal de Arte Helio Oiticica (Rio de Janeiro).
I have an urge to see differently, to train my eyes to perceive otherwise and I’m querying photography—the tool we have invented to see and memorise in greater details—to accompany
