With an extensive background in photography, combining education with industry experience as a color printer, studio manager, and photographer, Danelle Manthey has a holistic understanding of her medium. She carefully controls the dynamics of her shoots; her subjects, their clothing, the setting, and the lighting are all precisely orchestrated and set the stage for intense connections between photographer and subject. Her portraits explore identity, often expressing the duality between inner and exterior selves. In a series of environmental portraits, Manthey has captured people across the United States among their Christmas lights; in a later project she produced a haunting series with a lonely young girl mannequin (where the influence of Diane Arbus emerges), and most recently, she has produced photos inspired by old circus portraits; through all of these series, Manthey strives to explore personal identity and humanity.