Matt Black (photographer)

Last updated
Matt Black
Born1970 (age 52–53)
Santa Maria, California, U.S.
Education BA, Latin American History, San Francisco State University
OccupationPhotographer
Awards
Website mattblack.com

Matt Black (born 1970) is an American documentary photographer whose work has focused on issues of poverty, migration, and the environment. He is a full member of Magnum Photos. [4] Black's first book, American Geography, was published in 2021 and was exhibited at Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, Germany. [5]

Contents

Life and work

Black was born in 1970 in Santa Maria, California. He grew up in the town of Visalia, in California's agricultural Central Valley. While attending high school, he worked as a photographer at the Tulare Advance-Register, later the Visalia Times-Delta, where he learned the black and white photojournalism style he has used throughout his career. He received a B.A. in Latin American History from San Francisco State University in 1995. [6]

In the early 1990s, Black made several trips to Latin America, making work that in 1993 gained first prize in the Daily Life category of the World Press Photo Award. [1] His 1996 article, "Homage to an Outlaw", published by West Magazine, marked the beginning of his long form photojournalism focusing on rural life in the Central Valley.

Other major projects in the Central Valley include The Black Okies, for which he was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2003 [7] and From Dust to Dust, about indigenous Mexican migrants in California, for which he received the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Excellence in Journalism, Domestic Photography category, in 2007. [2]

In 1999, while working on a story about widespread unemployment in the Central Valley in the aftermath of a citrus freeze, Black met a family from Oaxaca, Mexico, which introduced him to the story of indigenous Mixtec migrants. The following year, he travelled to the Mixteca region of southern Mexico, beginning his project The People of Clouds. [8] Again working in the extended photo-essay form, major stories from this project include The Face of the Mountain, [9] After the Fall [10] and The Monster in the Mountains. [11]

In 2014, he began the project The Geography of Poverty, combining geotagged photographs with census data to map and document poor communities. In the summer of 2015, he completed a thirty-state trip photographing seventy of America's poorest places. [12]

In addition to still photography, Black has completed several short documentary films, including After the Fall, [13] Harvest of Shadows, [14] California Paradise Burning [15] and The Monster in the Mountains. [16]

In June 2015 he became a nominee member of Magnum Photos, [17] later an associate member [18] and in 2019 a full member. [4]

He is represented by the Robert Koch Gallery in San Francisco, California.[ citation needed ]

Publications

Awards

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

Exhibitions with others

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Center of Photography</span> Photography museum in Manhattan, New York

The International Center of Photography (ICP), at 79 Essex Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City, consists of a museum for photography and visual culture and a school offering an array of educational courses and programming. ICP's photographic collection, reading room, and archives are at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City, New Jersey. The organization was founded by Cornell Capa in 1974.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Ellen Mark</span> American photographer

Mary Ellen Mark was an American photographer known for her photojournalism, documentary photography, portraiture, and advertising photography. She photographed people who were "away from mainstream society and toward its more interesting, often troubled fringes".

Fred Ritchin is dean emeritus of the International Center of Photography (ICP) School. Ritchin was also the founding director of the Documentary Photography and Photojournalism Program at the School of ICP and was appointed dean in 2014. Prior to joining ICP, Ritchin was professor of photography and imaging at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, and co-director of the NYU/Magnum Foundation Photography and Human Rights educational program. He has worked as the picture editor of The New York Times Magazine (1978–1982) and of Horizon magazine, executive editor of Camera Arts magazine (1982–1983), Ritchin has written and lectured internationally about the challenges and possibilities implicit in the digital revolution.

Larry Towell is a Canadian photographer, poet, and oral historian. Towell is known for his photographs of sites of political conflict in the Ukraine, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Standing Rock and Afghanistan, among others. In 1988, Towell became the first Canadian member of Magnum Photos.

Marcus Terence Luke Bleasdale is a British photojournalist. His books include One Hundred Years of Darkness (2003), The Rape of a Nation (2009) and The Unravelling (2015). Bleasdale was appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to international photojournalism and human rights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paolo Pellegrin</span> Italian photojournalist

Paolo Pellegrin is a photojournalist. He was born in Rome, Italy, into a family of architects. He is a member of the Magnum Photos agency and has won ten World Press Photo awards.

Ellis (Eli) Reed is an American photographer and photojournalist. Reed was the first full-time black photographer employed by Magnum Agency and the author of several books, including Black In America. Several of the photographs from that project have been recognized in juried shows and exhibitions.

John Paul Fusco was an American photojournalist. Fusco is known in particular for his photographs of Robert F. Kennedy's funeral train, the 1966 Delano Grape strike and the human toll of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Fusco began his career as a photographer for Look magazine, and was a member of Magnum Photos from 1973 until his death in 2020.

Alex Majoli is an Italian photographer known for his documentation of war and conflict. He is a member of Magnum Photos. Majoli's work focuses on the human condition and the theater within our daily lives.

W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund is an organisation established to encourage and support individuals who are active in the field of photography for humanitarian purposes. It gives out the W. Eugene Smith Grant and Howard Chapnick Grant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benjamin Lowy</span>

Benjamin Lowy is an American photojournalist. He is best known for his work as a conflict photographer in war zones, and is one of the early adopters of and a vocal proponent for mobile photography.

Tomasz Gudzowaty is a Polish documentary filmmaker, portrait and art photographer, who gained international recognition through numerous publications and awards, most notably – in World Press Photo in which he succeeded nine times. He is also a multiple winner or finalist of such competitions as: Pictures of the Year International, NPPA's Best of Photojournalism, International Photography Awards, B&W Spider Awards, and National Portrait Gallery's Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonas Bendiksen</span> Norwegian photojournalist

Jonas Bendiksen is a Norwegian photojournalist based near Oslo. He has published the books Satellites (2006) and The Places We Live (2008) and received awards from World Press Photo, International Center of Photography, National Magazine Awards and Pictures of the Year International. Bendiksen is a member of Magnum Photos and has served as its president.

Peter van Agtmael is a documentary photographer based in New York. Since 2006 he has concentrated on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and their consequences in the United States. He is a member of Magnum Photos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maxim Dondyuk</span> Ukrainian photographer

Maxim Dondyuk is a Ukrainian photographer and visual artist, who combines photography, video, text, and archival material in his work. He explores issues of history, memory, conflicts, and their consequences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kosuke Okahara</span> Japanese photographer

Kosuke Okahara is a Japanese photographer who covers social issues in the tradition of humanistic documentary photography.

Sebastián Liste is a documentary photographer and sociologist whose work is focused in documenting the profound cultural changes and contemporary issues in Latin America and the Mediterranean area. He is a member of NOOR photo agency, a cooperative photojournalist agency located in the Netherlands.

Moises Saman is a Spanish-Peruvian photographer, based in Tokyo. He is considered "one of the leading conflict photographers of his generation" and is a full member of Magnum Photos. Saman is best known for his photographs from Iraq. His book Discordia (2016) is about the revolution in Egypt and the broader Arab Spring.

Krisanne Johnson is an American photojournalist. She is the winner of the 2011 W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography. Her work on post-apartheid South Africa and on HIV/AIDS and young women in Swaziland has been included in Time,The New Yorker,The New York Times,The Fader, and The Wall Street Journal.

Balazs Gardi is a Hungarian-born, American-based photographer. In 2008, Gardi received two 1st Prizes in the World Press Photo Awards and won the Photojournalism prize in the Bayeux-Calvados Award for War Correspondents for his work from Afghanistan.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "1993, Matt Black, 1st prize, Daily Life". World Press Photo . Retrieved 22 June 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 "RFK Center". Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights . Archived from the original on 2015-06-22. Retrieved 2013-12-16.
  3. 1 2 "Matt Black Wins the W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography". Time . 14 October 2015. Retrieved 15 October 2015.
  4. 1 2 "News from the 2019 Annual General Meeting". Magnum Photos. 3 July 2019. Retrieved 2019-11-12.
  5. 1 2 "Matt Black: American Geography". kunstmeile-hamburg.de. Retrieved 2022-01-03.
  6. ↑ "GLOBAL IMAGES". Syracuse University Magazine.
  7. ↑ "Explore Winners and Finalist by Category". The Pulitzer Prizes. Columbia University.
  8. ↑ "The People of Clouds". The New Yorker .
  9. ↑ "Modern Agonies in Ancient Mexican Villages". The New York Times . 16 June 2011.
  10. ↑ "After the Fall". Orion Magazine .
  11. ↑ "Guerrero and the Disappeared". The New Yorker .
  12. ↑ Black, Matt. "The Geography of Poverty". Archived from the original on 30 August 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  13. ↑ "After the Fall". Mountainfilm in Telluride .
  14. ↑ "Here's the hidden human cost of your food". MSNBC .
  15. ↑ "California: Paradise Burning". The New Yorker .
  16. ↑ "Video: The Monster in the Mountains". The New Yorker .
  17. ↑ "Magnum announces latest nominees". British Journal of Photography . Apptitude Media. 162 (7839): 7. 2015.
  18. ↑ "Photographer Bio Page". Magnum Pro. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
  19. ↑ "These Unforgettable Photos Of Poverty Challenge The Idea Of The American Dream". BuzzFeed News. 19 November 2021. Retrieved 2021-11-30.
  20. ↑ Laurent, Olivier (18 December 2014), "Matt Black Is TIME's Pick for Instagram Photographer of the Year 2014", Time LightBox , archived from the original on January 15, 2015, retrieved January 14, 2015
  21. ↑ Silverman, Rena (14 October 2015). "W. Eugene Smith Grants Honor Humanistic Photography". The New York Times . Retrieved 15 October 2015.
  22. ↑ "UCLA Anderson School of Management Announces 2015 Gerald Loeb Award Winners". UCLA Anderson School of Management . June 24, 2015. Retrieved January 31, 2019.
  23. ↑ "Six New Photographers Joined the World's Most Exclusive Photo Agency". Vice Media . 13 April 2016. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.