Danelle Manthey grew up in South Dakota, where at the age of 16 she picked up her first camera. After graduating from Chicago's acclaimed school for photography, Columbia College, she then worked in the city as a color printer, studio manager and photographer. In 2003 she embarked on her first large-scale project, Christmas USA, photos of people in her hometown with their Christmas Lights. She returned to Sioux Falls in 2005 to photograph new subjects as well as revisit some of the old ones in order to deepen her commitment to these relationships. She has been working on the project every year since in a new location around the country and is looking to turn both the photographs and the stories of these people into a book.The images she shot from Christmas USA became her accepted submission piece into chashama’s Artist in Residency Program in New York City where she was granted a subsidized studio space. This is where she worked on her next series, Self-Made Space, a studio project where people were asked to create a visual statement about them-self. Giving them limited instruction and supplying basic tools, she wanted to see how someone would express them-self in a visual manner. The work created during this time period became a solo show at the 42nd street chashama gallery.In 2008 she was invited to participate in the Pool Art Fair in the Chelsea Hotel in New York City. She has exhibited her work in numerous group shows and has taken on new projects while also expanding her commercial portfolio. Danelle resides in New York City and Upstate New York.