johnmatthews's Profile

Bio

I am a cultural migrant who photographs the liminal, transitional spaces in which I seem to be suspended forever. My obsession with place and identity and the fervent desire to find a new home assumed a greater urgency when I moved to London.

The specifics of everyday life and our perception of those qualities fascinate me. I blame my myopia for this obsession which began at a very young age. My ‘nearsightedness’ made close objects appear sharp, but everything beyond an arm's-length away looked as smeary as a water colour painting. This defect of sight results from the same flaw that produces a blurry photograph - my eye sits too far from my cornea like a lens fixed too far from the film or digital sensor. Before I finally discovered contact lenses as a teenager, I thought the world quite uninteresting. The glasses I wore reinforced my sense of otherness and distance. Although contact lenses allow me to see as others see - or so I suppose - I still do find it difficult to entirely cast off that early sense of separateness from the world.

With the narratives in my pictures I bridge the distance between myself, the world and you.

Please don't hesitate to drop me a line with any questions about me or my work. I would absolutely love to create a custom piece based on older images or accept a commission from you to make something new and unique.

Visit my web site to see more of my collections and narratives:

http://www.flaneurphoto.com

Male

Favorite Materials

Acros, Portra 400NC, PlusX, TriX, Velvia