Can you spare an umbrella?


My name is Ross Mantle. I am a photographer dividing time between self-initiated projects and client commissions. I am a co-founder of Sleeper Studio and teach courses at Carnegie Mellon University.


ross@rossmantle.com 
412 418 8730  
Pittsburgh, PA
@ross_man_tle
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There is a small town in Western Pennsylvania called California. It is said to have been founded by a group of men traveling west for the Gold Rush of 1849. The prospectors made it as far as the valley where the town now sits and named the settlement in honor of their intended destination.

These photos weren’t made there but are inspired by this story. They circle intention and repeat themes while depicting spaces of unresolve and restlessness. The work references traditions of American road trips, the history of Manifest Destiny, and daydream visions of California. It is divided into two distinct and interconnected sections, the first comprising photographs across the northeast and the second

(Appendix, California) reaches a California that often looks despairingly similar to the eastern landscapes left behind in California, Pennsylvania.
















InfoI work with photography