Matt Eich
From Matt's story about alligator hunters. © Matt Eich
(UPDATE: February 21, 2010. The photo above was just awarded a second place in the Pictures of the Year International Science and Natural History category.)
Have you met Matt Eich? If not, you should. If you have, then you know: He’s got a quiet presence, a gentleness about him that permeates whatever space he’s in. That’s hardly his only prevalent quality but it’s certainly a striking one.
It’s surprising that such a calm person can produce such startling images - such as the one above from a story about hunting alligators.
I’ve been privileged to help Matt edit his work the past couple years - including the work that won the Community Awareness Award in POYi and The Alexia Foundation student award. So I’ve seen a lot of his work. We just worked on his portfolio from the past year for contest entries.
There is a frankness to his images, an honesty that let’s you know he cares about what he’s photographing and that you should care, too. It’s hard not to care because Matt is good at this stuff - as are all the members of Luceo Images.
All photographers produce images that are reflections of the person who made the picture, which is like saying you are what you eat. It’s unavoidable.
So being true to who you are, letting yourself make pictures from the core of your self, clearing the clutter, ditching the applied style, forgetting what’s hip today, will lead you to images that say what you’re capable of saying.
In Matt’s case, that’s a lot.
It follows, then, that to say more tomorrow than you did today with your photographs, you have to grow who you are. You have to set out to say more. A photograph can only be what you strive to make it.
Reader Comments (1)
I've never had the pleasure to meet Matt but we have a mutual friend. I've been following his work for a couple years. It was nice to see him featured here. Excellent write up. this is the first I've read from you... as I've only been on your site all of 5 minutes. I'll linger here awhile.