TONY FERARRA
Manco was a studio run by photographer Bill Wyman. Born August 26, 1946 in Oslo, Norway, Wyman was a war orphan adopted by an American soldier father and Norwegian mother, and moved after World War II to Lawrenceville, New Jersey. In the 1960s, Wyman enlisted in the Army, with service in Vietnam. After his active duty service, he attended college at Ohio Wesleyan, dropped out, then finished his bachelor's degree at Rider University in New Jersey. Following that, he pursued a graduate degree at Ohio State University, then reentered the Army with the intent of pursuing a career as an officer. He served in various capacities until 1979, when the death of his father forced him to seek other options. Building on a personal interest in photographing men for his own pleasure, he began photographing models in earnest and created Manco in Trenton, NJ in 1982. He advertised at first in the classifieds of The Advocate and saw a modest return on his investment. In January 1985, using money inherited after the death of his mother, Wyman moved to Los Angeles and began operating Manco as a primary business. He began photographing models with more regularity in order to build a backlog of product he could release, and also began buying the rights to other recently-shuttered studios that featured photography similar to his own. Manco specialized in still photographs, offered in photographic prints in black and white or color, as well as slide sets, and selected 8mm films. Wyman purchased rights for eight or more studioes, including Aaron Enterprises, Common Ground, Visual Images, Golden Images, and Latin-themed photographs from the estate of John Rowberry. Source: Interviews with Bill Wyman.
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