Matthew Russell Rolston is an American artist, photographer, director and creative director,[1] known for his lighting techniques[2] and detailed approach to art direction and design. Rolston has been identified throughout his career with the revival and modern expression of Hollywood glamour.[3]
Rolston's career spans photography, film, creative direction, experiential design, branding, product design, fine art, publishing, and arts education.[4]
While at ArtCenter, Rolston received an assignment from American artist Andy Warhol,[11] for Warhol's celebrity-focused Interview magazine, which served as his "discovery". Thereafter, he began a successful career in photography. Rolston began shooting covers and editorial assignments for founding editor Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone, as well as for other publications such as Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, Vanity Fair, W and The New York Times Magazine. Rolston has completed thousands of photo shoots in his career, including over 100 covers for Rolling Stone.[12]
A series of monographs has been published on Rolston's works, including:
Big Pictures, A Book of Photographs (1991), a selection of images from the artist's first decade as a photographer, with an introduction by American film director Tim Burton. It was published by Bulfinch Press, New York.
beautyLIGHT, Pictures at a Magazine (2008) surveys more than twenty years of Rolston's editorial portraits. It features an introduction by photographic curator, writer, and editor Ingrid Sischy and was published by teNeues, Germany.
Talking Heads: The Vent Haven Portraits (2012), a fine art series consisting of large color portraits of ventriloquist dummies held in a rare museum collection.[18] It was published by Pointed Leaf Press, New York.
Hollywood Royale: Out of the School of Los Angeles (2017), a retrospective capturing the artist's work in mid-career. The publication includes an essay[19] by former Vogue and Vanity Fair design director[20] and writer Charles Churchward, and was published by teNeues, Germany.
In 2021, Laguna Art Museum published Matthew Rolston, Art People: The Pageant Portraits, an exhibition catalog.[21]
Vanitas: The Palermo Portraits (2025) is a fine art series portraying Christian mummies from the Capuchin Catacombs of Sicily. The monograph contains an introduction by American photographic historian and critic Philip Gefter and was published by Nazraeli Press, California.
Twenty photographs by Rolston[22] were donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum in 2024. Paul Martineau, Getty Curator of Photographs, directed the acquisition. The works include images from Rolston's Hollywood Royale retrospective.[23]
Rolston established a documentary production unit called 'R-ROLL', a play on the industry term 'B-roll' for behind-the-scenes footage. The 'R' is for Rolston. According to Rolston, "There's an overwhelming demand for filmed content, as clients expand their reach beyond traditional media."[25]
R-ROLL has produced projects for Time, Inc., Amazon.com, ESPN, A&E/Lifetime Networks, SBE Entertainment Group and Virgin Hotels among others. Rolston said, "We're now entering an era where the 'making of' is just as important as the 'of'. And clients seem to enjoy the integration of our media services. Print, film, design, documentary, you might say we're a 'one-stop-shop'."[26]
In 2024, Rolston creative-directed recording artist Jewel in The Portal: An Art Experience by Jewel. Rolston developed a life-size hologram for her Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art collaboration in Arkansas.[33][34]
Fine art
Four fine art photography projects by Rolston became publications and exhibitions:
Talking Heads: The Vent Haven Portraits consists of monumentally-scaled color portraits of a collection of ventriloquial figures from the Vent Haven Museum in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky.[18] This was Rolston's first self-initiated photography project and debuted at Diane Rosenstein Fine Art in Los Angeles.[35] It has since travelled to Miami[36] and Berlin, and other cities.[37] The exhibition traveled with Rolston's third monograph.
Hollywood Royale: Out of the School of Los Angeles – Rolston's fourth monograph and a traveling exhibition – is a retrospective of his editorial portrait work from 1977 to 1993.[38][39] Los Angeles gallerist David Fahey edited the collection, which captures 1980s talent including Cyndi Lauper, George Michael, Madonna, Michael Jackson, and Prince.[40]
Vanitas: The Palermo Portraits is another dramatically scaled color portrait series of Christian mummies from the Capuchin Catacombs of Sicily.[46] According to Rolston, the series is "a meditation on mortality",[47] exploring existential themes through portrait photography.[48]
Rolston's fine art photography has been exhibited in galleries including CAMERA WORK in Berlin, Germany; Diane Rosenstein Fine Art, Ralph Pucci International, and Fahey/Klein Gallery, all in Los Angeles.[49][50][51][52]
Rolston describes his artistic aim as "[posing] questions about the things that make us most human."[53]
Arts education and scholarships
In 1998, Rolston established the Matthew Rolston Scholarship for Film and Creative Direction at ArtCenter College of Design. Said Rolston, "the scholarship is intended to promote cross-disciplinary studies between film and other creative practices".[4]
In 2015, Rolston became an adjunct professor and curricular advisor to ArtCenter College's Undergraduate and Graduate Film Departments, and continues to lecture and mentor there in marketing and communications strategy, fashion communications, luxury branding, and public service messaging.[4] At ArtCenter, Rolston teaches two original courses that he conceived and wrote. The first, focusing on marketing communications, is titled "The Power of Pleasure." And the second class, named Conscious Communication, centers on public interest communications.[54] Rolston's classes are situated within ArtCenter's film program; however, they invite students from various disciplines, including advertising and creative direction, photography and imaging, fine art, and other courses of study offered at the college.[54]
Within the structure of the classes, students create short-form films in an atmosphere resembling a professional communications agency, with Rolston acting as instructor, mentor, and creative director, and the students working as writer/director 'makers'.[55]
An illustrated textbook of Rolston's The Power of Pleasure, based on his syllabus and lectures, is currently under development.
Recognizing Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles as another significant Southern California institution that shaped Rolston's artistic formation, he created the "Matthew Rolston Scholarship Fund for Product and Fashion Design at Otis College." This fund supports product and fashion design students, with a focus on communication and creative direction skills.[56]
In 2024, Rolston took on the role of senior lecturer at Otis College, focusing on object design and development. He collaborated with Jonathan Fidler, Otis' assistant chair of product design, to create a course called Vessel of Dreams: The Packaging of Perfumery, which explores the potential for communications inherent in luxury fragrance packaging.[56]
Books
Matthew Rolston: Vanitas: The Palermo Portraits – Nazraeli Press, 2025
Malcolm Warner, PhD.: Matthew Rolston, Art People: The Pageant Portraits – Laguna Art Museum, 2021
Matthew Rolston: Hollywood Royale: Out of the School of Los Angeles – teNeues, 2017
Matthew Rolston: Talking Heads: The Vent Haven Portraits – Pointed Leaf Press, 2012
Matthew Rolston: beautyLIGHT: Pictures at a Magazine – teNeues, 2008
Matthew Rolston: Big Pictures: A Book of Photographs – Bulfinch, 1991
James Danziger: Visual Aid – Pantheon, October 12, 1986, pp.51–69.
Andy Warhol, Pat Hackett: The Andy Warhol Diaries – Warner Books, May 1989, pp.599–600.
Isabella Rossellini: 10 Years of Dolce & Gabbana – Leonardo Arte, Milan, 1996, pp.137, 139, 209.
Mark Francis, Margery King: The Warhol Look: Glamour Style Fashion – Bulfinch, October 1997, pp.246, 252–253.
Walter Hubert: Naked: Flowers Exposed – HarperCollins, 1997, pp.131–132.
Steve Reiss, Neil Feineman: Thirty Frames Per Second: The Visionary Art of the Music Video – Harry N. Abrams, October 1, 2000, pp.26, 206–211.
Henry Keazor, Thorsten Wübbena: Video Thrills The Radio Star. Musikvideos: Geschichte, Themen, Analysen – Bielefeld 2005, pp.27.
Trey Laird: Individuals: Portraits from the Gap Collection – Melcher Media, October 30, 2006, pp.37, 59, 82, 94, 98, 104, 120, 230.
Justyn Barnes, Nate Giorgio, David Nordahl Jordan Sommers: The Official Michael Jackson Opus – OPUS Media Group, December 7, 2009, "The Last Sitting," pp.242–247.
Tim Blanks: 20 Years of Dolce & Gabbana For Men, Mondadori Electa, 2010, pp, 97, 419.
Charles Churchward: Herb Ritts: The Golden Hour: A Photographer's Life and His World – Rizzoli, October 26, 2010, pp.74–77, 79, 82–83, 99, 130, 207, 295, 311.
Kathy Ryan: The New York Times Magazine Photographs – Thames & Hudson, September 30, 2011, pp.304–305.
Graydon Carter: Vanity Fair 100 Years: From the Jazz Age to Our Age – Abrams, pp. 237
Steven M. Price: Trousdale Estates: Midcentury to Modern in Beverly Hills – Regan Arts, January 2017, pp.120–125.
Joan Juliet Buck: The Price of Illusion: A Memoir – Illustrated Edition, Atria Books, March 2017, p.158, Plate Section Two (p.5).
Jann S. Wenner, Jodi Peckman, Joe Levy: 50 Years of Rolling Stone, May 2017 – Abrams, pp.216–7, 281.
Claudia Campaña: Michael Jackson: Artes visuales y símbolos – Metales pesados, Ediciones, 2018, pp.14–16.
Michael Chow: Mr. Chow: 50 Years – DelMonico Books-Prestel, 2018, p.134.
Tim Street Porter, Annie Kelly: Splash: The Art of the Swimming Pool – Illustrated Edition, Rizzoli, April 2019, pp.4 (dedication), 216–217.
Ruth Reichl: Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir – Random House, April 2019, pp.165–166.
Paige Powell: Paige Powell: Beulah Land – Dashwood Books, May 2019, p.229.
Demi Moore: Inside Out: A Memoir – Harper, HarperCollins, September 2019, front cover image.
Gary D. Rhodes, Robert Singer: Consuming Images: Film Art and the American Television Commercial – Edinburgh University Press, 2020, pp.122–123.
Sara Dallin, Keren Woodward: Really Saying Something: Sara & Keren – Our Banarama Story – Hutchinson, October 2020, Plate Section One, p.10
Enrico Bernardo: The Impossible Collection of Champagne: The 100 Most Exceptional Bottles from Champagne – Assouline, October 2022, pp.100–101.
Carla Sozzani, Olivier Saillard: Alaïa Afore Alaïa – Rizzoli International Publications, October 2022, pp.308, 414.
John Demsey, Alina Cho: Behind the Blue Door: A Maximalist Mantra – Vendome Press, October 2023, pp.123–125, 230.
Jeanne Beker: Heart On My Sleeve: Stories from a Life Well Worn – Simon & Schuster Canada, October 2024, pp.155–157.
David Silverman: Sierra Towers: A History – LA House Histories, 2024, pp. 213.
Paul Martineau, Ryan Linkof: Queer Lens: A History of Photography – J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, May 2025, pp. vi, (plate J) 122, (plate 156) 241, 305, 309, 329.
Sofia Coppola, Chanel: Haute Couture – Éditions 7L / Important Flowers, 2025, pp. 296, 443.
↑Warhol, Andy (1997). The Warhol look: glamour style fashion / Mark Francis and Margery King; with essays by Hilton Als ... [et al.] Pittsburgh: Bulfinch Press. ISBN978-0-8212-2476-2.
↑Martin, Richard (1987). Fashion and surrealism. New York: Rizzoli. ISBN978-0-8478-0831-1.
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.
