ToP #0110: Interview with Matt Black

Thoughts on Photography

Matt Black is a documentary photographer who has focused much of the past fifteen years on photographing forgotten people and places. He has a deep interest in the themes of changing rural economies, migration and cultural change. His work has received many honors and has been noted for its combination of emotional depth, social conviction, and visual intensity.Matt's work has received grants and awards from the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, the California Council for the Humanities, and the Alexia Foundation for World Peace. Matt has also been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and has received a Golden Eye award from the World Press Photo Foundation. Matt is currently raising funds through Kickstarter.com to continue a long-term project called The People of Clouds which is documenting the migration of a whole culture of indigenous Mexicans called the Mixteca (or People of Clouds) to the Central Valley of California in the United States. This fundraising effort ends on August 23rd of 2011 so please visit Matt's Kickstarter page for more details or to pledge.