“Don’t undertake a project unless it is manifestly important and nearly impossible,” the book starts. The potent quote by the late Edwin Land seems quite apropos given the nature of the pages that follow it. The project Tim Mantoani documents in his book, Behind Photography, has been nearly a decade in the making. Beginning back in 2006, when Mantoani got his first taste of a Polaroid 20 x 24 Land camera, he had just gone through a painful battle with a rare form of bone cancer and soon after found himself mourning the premature loss of his close friend and mentor, Dean Collins. Though Mantoani was devastated by the loss, he was profoundly moved at the lack of control one has over his own fate.[Read More…]