Matt Black (photographer)

Matt Black (born 1970) is an American documentary photographer whose work has focused on issues of poverty, migration, and the environment.

Matt Black
Born1970 (age 50–51)
Santa Maria, California, United States
EducationB.A., Latin American History
Alma materSan Francisco State University
OccupationPhotographer
Websitewww.mattblack.com

Black has received a World Press Photo Award,[1] the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Excellence in Journalism[2] and the W. Eugene Smith Grant.[3] He is a full member of Magnum Photos.

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.[4]

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[5] 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.[6] Again working in the extended photo-essay form, major stories from this project include The Face of the Mountain,[7] After the Fall[8] and The Monster in the Mountains.[9]

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.[10]

In addition to still photography, Black has completed several short documentary films, including After the Fall,[11] Harvest of Shadows,[12] California Paradise Burning[13] and The Monster in the Mountains.[14]

In June 2015 he became a nominee member of Magnum Photos,[15] later an associate member[16] and in 2019 a full member.[17]

Awards

Exhibitions with others

References
  1. "1993, Matt Black, 1st prize, Daily Life". World Press Photo. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
  2. "RFK Center". Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. Archived from the original on 2015-06-22. Retrieved 2013-12-16.
  3. "Matt Black Wins the W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography". Time. 14 October 2015. Retrieved 15 October 2015.
  4. "GLOBAL IMAGES". Syracuse University Magazine.
  5. "The Pulitzer Prizes". Columbia University.
  6. "The People of Clouds". The New Yorker.
  7. "Modern Agonies in Ancient Mexican Villages". The New York Times.
  8. "After the Fall". Orion Magazine.
  9. "Guerrero and the Disappeared". The New Yorker.
  10. "The Geography of Poverty". Matt Black.
  11. "After the Fall". Mountainfilm in Telluride.
  12. "Here's the hidden human cost of your food". MSNBC.
  13. "California: Paradise Burning". The New Yorker.
  14. "Video: The Monster in the Mountains". The New Yorker.
  15. "Magnum announces latest nominees". British Journal of Photography. Apptitude Media. 162 (7839): 7. 2015.
  16. "Photographer Bio Page". Magnum Pro. Magnum Photos. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
  17. "News from the 2019 Annual General Meeting". Magnum Photos. 3 July 2019. Retrieved 2019-11-12.
  18. 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
  19. Silverman, Rena (14 October 2015). "W. Eugene Smith Grants Honor Humanistic Photography". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 October 2015.
  20. "UCLA Anderson School of Management Announces 2015 Gerald Loeb Award Winners". UCLA Anderson School of Management. June 24, 2015. Retrieved January 31, 2019.
  21. "Six New Photographers Joined the World's Most Exclusive Photo Agency". Vice Media. 13 April 2016. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
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