Manuel Llaneras, Inman Park
• Background: Cuban-born Llaneras has pointed his lens at life's happiest and most unsettling moments. His spontaneous-looking wedding photographs are a joyous rush of smiles, tears and toasts, while his documentary images — including photos from a trip to Iraq and anti-war demonstrations back home — draw on his sharply focused observational skills. "I feel like my wedding photography is an extension of my documentary work," he said. "I execute it with the same approach, the same style. And it gives me a great opportunity to observe people."
• Collecting focus: Almost all of the works he owns came as gifts or trades with other local photographers, including Jan Fields, Tova Baruch and Bobby Abrahamson. Another treasured image was shot by playwright Eric McAfee, who traveled with Llaneras to Baghdad.
• Favorite piece: "Beale Street, Memphis, Tenn., Aug. 27, 1987," a black-and-white photo by Ilia Varcev, a refugee from Communist Czechoslovakia. Llaneras, who left Cuba when he was 10, selected this image when the friends traded work a few years ago. A cut-out photo prop of Elvis Presley dominates the foreground of the piece, with a distracted family visible in the background.
• Why he likes it: "I love the different layers it has visually, but also the cultural aspect of it," Llaneras said. "He's looking at this typical Americana scene but with a twist. I like the fact that he's documenting his life in a sense but looking at the United States from the outside, as an immigrant. I relate to that because in some ways, that's what I've been doing."
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