James C. Mangette (Jim), a 20-year veteran of the United States Air Force, introduced himself to the world of photography like most people, as a hobbyist. In 1999, his in-laws purchased him a simple digital camera which held a floppy disk that stored only six pictures. Three years later, Jim truly found his passion for photography as he and his family moved to Germany. He made numerous photographs of the wonderful landscapes as well as the majestic castles, palaces, and many ruins across Europe.
Once he moved back to the States, he continued this passion throughout the plain states photography. He takes pictures of anything from the Grand Tetons and Devils Tower in Wyoming to run down homesteads in the Dakotas. His passion for photography grew with every press of the shutter release button.
In 2015, the Ohio native retired from the US Air Force in Colorado Springs, CO. Contemplating in what to do for the next chapter of his life, his wife suggested, “why not photography?” So he enrolled in the Professional Photography program at Pikes Peak Community College that summer. During his time there, he learned many new genres and nuances of the art, and Jim wanted to blend those new skills with his love for landscape and rural decay photography. In May of 2017, Jim will graduate from Pikes Peak CC with his Associates Degree in Applied Sciences with an emphasis in Professional Photography.
Jim Mangette now resides and relishes the rural life by the small burg of Peyton, CO. He enjoys the bittersweet transition of watching his children grow up and leave the home for college and lead in their professional lives. He and his wife love finding new trails for hiking as well as trying to learn how to become a homesteading household by raising their own chickens, gardens, and goats. Most of all, Jim constantly searches for a new scene to be made into stunning photographs, and these scenes to be added to hiscatalog of art for his new photography business, BoomStand Photographics, which opens its doors in the Autumn of 2017.