Sense

Manja Zore is a rising young talent in the world of creative photography. She likes to look as any good photographer must.  Photography is about witness, the gaze, and the inevitable voyeuristic act of partaking vicariously in the other's drama.  Manja's preoccupation with the body, its subtle parts and the interaction of these from one to another, drives her curiosity.  She is getting off on something!  Perhaps, it is the subtle caress of the camera and its click -- intrusion into intimacy.  For it is the still photographs ability to capture a moment which defies any kind of literal coding and yet signals a feeling that stimulates the viewer to look.
Manja's talent lies in her ability to titillate.  She suggests scenarios and narratives about a relationship that we all would like to experience. It does not matter whether she has been a faithful witness to something real or that she fabricated and staged each frame.  What does matter is that she has manifested a visual equivalent for our own sexual drive for intimacy. Ironically, nothing is very explicit and all the expressions of the great sensual quality of all these images lie in simple gestures and the juxtaposition of erotic shapes.
Red is at the core of her palate.  It drives the pictures, suggests the passion, and even the potential for violence that exists in every intimacy. It looms out at you, drawing you into the emotion of a love affair.  It is very seductive and yet a warning to the viewer that something  could go awry.  Touch the silk slip or the puckered lips if you must, but remember there will be consequences.  Hence without really telling us any specifics, Manja has managed to create an edgy story in each of her frames.  A story which prompts us to bring our own experiences of the symbolic meaning of red to the photographic act.
Charles H. Traub (Chairperson - School of Visual Arts, New York)

Her photography project for Cankarjev Dom is composed of two parts: twenty photographs from the Handsome series, the message and final purpose of which is the idea of beauty in the form of an emotion, and the latest series of photographs taken with the polaroid transfer technique, which is based on a complete fabrication of reality and an exchange of the beauty of the seen for the aesthetics of the personal.

Production and organisation: Cankarjev dom
In cooperation with Mesto žensk/ City of Women