The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 17, 2025

Mama

1966

James Mannas

(American, b. 1941)
gelatin silver print
Image: 22.2 x 16.2 cm (8 3/4 x 6 3/8 in.); Paper: 22.2 x 16.2 cm (8 3/4 x 6 3/8 in.); Mounted: 35.4 x 27.8 cm (13 15/16 x 10 15/16 in.)
The Jane B. Tripp Charitable Lead Annuity Trust 2022.100
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Mama shows us the artist’s mother, Veona Brooks-Mannas, at fifty-four.

Description

Veona Brooks-Mannas gave birth to eight children and raised thirteen. Her son depicts her as a strong and riveting figure, filling the frame and accorded the importance appropriate to a mother in the eyes of her children. He tempers this strength through slightly soft focus, a grainy printing technique, and an emphasis in her skin and hair on the beauty of the blacks and highlights of the silvery photo paper.
  • ?-2022
    (Charles Isaacs Photographs, Inc.), New York, NY
    September 5, 2022-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • The Black Photographers Annual 1973, Brooklyn, NY, Black Photographers Annual, 1973 vol. 1, p. 49
    Eckhardt, Sarah L., Louis H. Draper, Deborah Willis, Erina Duganne, Romi Crawford, John Edwin Mason, Bill Gaskins, Sharayah Cochran, and Louis H. Draper. Working together: Louis Draper and the Kamoinge Workshop. 2020. pl. 57, p. 189
  • {{cite web|title=Mama|url=false|author=James Mannas|year=1966|access-date=17 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2022.100