Photographers Bio

Jim Rauth has had a lifelong interest in photography. After retirement from a thirty-three-year business career, he made the transition from casual to serious photography, studying at professional workshops and learning to capture a broad range of animate and inanimate subjects. Since building a varied portfolio and presenting a successful show at the Cincinnati Art Club in 2002, he has sold prints to individuals and corporations at galleries in Ohio, Michigan, Florida, and Indiana. Over the past two years Rauth has concentrated on mannequins as a photographic subject. The images selected for this book were shot in four countries and fourteen states.

Photographers Notes

"We are all mannequins trying to be noticed"

This collection began with my first mannequin images taken at night several years ago in Paris. Not only were the mannequins eye-catching, the were challenging to photograph due to reflective glass and occasionally unforgiving light. My "subjects" were found in windows, backrooms, attics, basements and sales floors of antique shops, boutiques, travel agencies, medical supply stores, vintage clothing outlets, sex shops, tattoo parlors, military surplus stores and elegant shops in fourteen states and four countries.

All mannequins were photographed exactly as found. Existing lighting either helped or hurt but was not changed. Dirty windows occasionally made sharp focus impossible and reflections were an obstacle in some situations, but in others they were used to enhance the image. I have tried to show the diverse way in which artistically "dressed" mannequins are used to catch our eye.

Time affects mannequins, as it does us --- they sometimes get cracked and broken. While flawless mannequins are beautiful, worn ones are compelling. In a way they represent us, challenged, but still going strong.