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September 7, 2008 |
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Created and Maintained by: The Photoimaging Information Council |
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Articles |
 
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TGP: Tell me about your early experiences as a photographer, when you were first learning to take photographs.
MJS: I had no clue in the beginning. I probably went through hundreds of rolls where I'd just waste film, you know, trying to figure out "how do I shoot? How do I use a light meter? What is a light meter?" I started off just taking pictures, and learned the hard way asking, "Why is this overexposed? Why is this really dark? What's going on?" Those are fun days, you learn from your mistakes. Because, as an amateur, you see things in reality and you think, "oh my God! I'm gonna take a picture of this." But, you're not aware that film doesn't have the range that your eye has, not even close. So I had to figure out then why that was happening. As I became more of a real photographer I started teaching myself how to see light.
 Gordon Parks © 2001 Matthew Jordan Smith
TGP: What kind of camera did you start out shooting with?
MJS: My first camera was a Pentax Honeywell, all manual. It was a great camera to learn on. I kind of feel that a lot of people are missing out these days because of digital, not getting the fundamentals. You still need them. To learn how light works, learn how a meter works, learn how a meter and a camera work together. To learn that meters don't think, they only react. And more importantly, learning to see light, which is so important. If you're a room and there's no direct light, where's the light coming from? What type of light is it? Is it tungsten light? Is if fluorescent light? Is it daylight coming in from the sun? It's a rainy day, where's that illumination coming from? And then once you learn all that, you figure out how to make the light that you want.
 Tyra Banks © 2001 Matthew Jordan Smith
TGP: You didn't start off doing fashion?
MJS: No, not at all. I started off doing sports actually.
TGP: Which is something where you don't have the luxury of fancy equipment and controlled light.
MJS: True, but you still need to learn how to see, and be aware of where the light is. Always be cognizant of that. It's got to be like a reflex actually, almost like brushing your teeth. You see it and you know where it is. Shooting sports in the beginning, I would sometimes shoot my friends practicing football and it would come out with the eyes totally black and I'd be like "there was bright sun, I don't understand why it was dark like that." Then you start figuring out where the sun is and how that changes things. It's funny to see that now because I just look at my old negs and say, "whoa, I've come a long way."
TGP: It must have been fun moving to fashion, where you can create the lighting situations that you want at any time.
MJS: Absolutely. What drew me to the commercial world--fashion and that kind of thing--was the fact that I could have my fantasy image brought to life. The end of the day sunlight lasts 30 minutes pretty much. When I'm shooting I can create that same look and have it all day long, and that's a luxury you don't get in reality. I've always loved that, having that luxury of creating that look, and having the time to do what you want to do, holding time still. It's a hard thing to do.
 Iman © 2001 Matthew Jordan Smith
TGP: So tell me about Sepia Dreams, how did that come to be?
MJS: Well, Sepia Dreams was a slow burn. When I was assisting I had this photographer tell me that his biggest mistake was not doing a book during the height of his career. That always stayed in my mind. Then I was asked to speak at SVA, and after I spoke I was asked to teach for a semester. Doing this class, I’d always have students ask me “what’s the secret to making it as a photographer?” Then I’d leave class and go into a job and shoot some celebrity and they’d be like, “oh wow, what’s the secret of being a photographer? How’d you get started?” There was one particular week when I heard that question over and over again and I was like, wow, this is so weird, what if I can put that in a book, and do, not my self, but very interesting people, celebrities, and ask them how they got started in their career, and then marry their answers with pictures that I’ve shot of them? So that was, I guess, the day that Sepia Dreams was born. I started calling celebrities that I knew, and asking if they’d let me interview them, and photograph them. The book has been a good catalyst for me in a lot of ways.
 Sepia Dreams © 2001 Matthew Jordan Smith
TGP: Something that helped you to find the answers to those questions?
MJS: Absolutely. And it was also affirmation for me. You know, sometimes you’re not sure if you’re doing things the right way, then you hear how other people have done the same things over and over again. You hear that failure is a part of success. You hear that you can’t give up. You hear that it’s not easy. And you’re like, “ok, I am doing this the right way.” Because, oftentimes, you think, “oh this is supposed to be easy.” Well, it’s not supposed to be easy. Everything, learning how to see light, learning how to take pictures, learning how to interview, it’s all this learning process, and Sepia dreams was that for me. It was a fun project to do.
TGP: Was there a time when you started feeling like you’d “made it” as a photographer?
MJS: Ah, I still don’t feel like that. I see myself as being the CEO, CFO, or President of my company. You’re always working, like any Fortune 500 company; you’re working to boost revenues, so that you have a better year. Once you start feeling you’ve made it, I think, that’s the beginning of the end. For me I want to stay hungry. When I find myself slacking, then I’ve got to go out and dig deeper, try harder, and reinvent myself, read more books, read books on creativity, go to shows, go to museums, and take in anything I can, visually, to be inspired. When I first started photography I had my goal of just being published. And then you get published and you’re like, ok I want to get published in this magazine. Then you want to shoot this campaign. It just gets bigger and bigger and better. The dream just continues. There’s always something else. There’s a lot more I want to do.
 Boris Kodjoe © 2001 Matthew Jordan Smith
TGP: You clearly have had a long love affair with the creative side of photography. Was it hard at first to find a balance between the business and the creative ends?
MJS: Absolutely. In the beginning, actually, working as an assistant, you just think it’s all about your work, and you concentrate in just your craft, your photography. Even in schools, people are thinking about just the art, just the craft. But it’s a marriage between the artistic side and the business side. If you’re not a businessman, you will not make it. You have to know how to conduct business, how to curtail costs, as well as be creative, and always be feeding yourself mentally. I think the most important thing is always having a personal project, something that’s not an assignment, something that’s coming from you. When you’re working a lot, you’re like “oh, I don’t have time to do special project,” but you have to. It keeps you sharp, on the edge, where you need to be. And it fuels you; it reminds you of what you love about photography.
 Gregory Hines © 2001 Matthew Jordan Smith
TGP: Any other advice for photographers who are just starting out?
MJS: Absolutely. First and foremost, always take photographs of things that you know. Don’t worry about copying a style that you think is hot right now. You need to be distinctive in your approach, and the only way to do that is to shoot what’s deep down inside. If you pull your work from what’s inside of you, you can’t help but to win. That’s probably the most important thing I could tell anybody. There are more things I could say as well. To keep yourself constantly stimulated by seeking out things outside of just photography, and finding out how that can help you as a photographer. Don’t read just photography books; read about everything. Whatever your interests are, dive deep into them, and figure out new ways to do what you love.
TGP: That’s a good point. After all, a photographer is not just a photographer: they’re a person, a whole person, and they need to be in order to be a good photographer.
MJS: Exactly, that’s what it’s all about. You have to be a full person, showing yourself, showing your weaknesses. If you’re having a bad day, show that by taking pictures. If you’re having a great day, show that as well. Whatever it is, use your photography as an outlet. I went to see a show, this was years ago, when I was an assistant. It was a show of Matisse, at the Met. Seeing this show had a profound effect on me because I watched his entire career change. Back then I was thinking you had to do one thing and do that one thing for your entire career. He evolved through the decades, and I saw his work change and grow. As a photographer you’re doing the same thing, you’re growing, and your work should change and evolve as you evolve. I want to continue to change, as I get older, and evolve in the same way with my craft.
 Loretta Divine © 2001 Matthew Jordan Smith
TGP: What are some of the goals that you have for your future as a photographer?
MJS: There are definitely major goals that I have. One major goal is to be a consistent contributing photographer to Vanity Fair. That’s where I’d love to be, on the level of an Annie Liebovitz. That’s a major goal. Also to break open doors and barriers where no ethnic photographer’s gone before, that’s a major goal. To be seen first as a photographer, not a black photographer. To be seen as being a major photographer. My goal each and every day when I get up in the morning is to work on building my work, building my presentation, building my knowledge base. You do that by seeking knowledge in every way form and fashion. By reading great books, by looking at great photographers of the past and studying their history. Not only photographers: artists, bankers, it doesn’t matter, you learn from everything you can get your hands on. That’s what I’m trying to do, being smart about my career.
 Tommy Davidson © 2001 Matthew Jordan Smith
TGP: You don’t want to be seen just as a black photographer, but it’s also clearly important for you to represent who you are and where you come from. You have a book about strong African Americans. How do you balance that?
MJS: That’s a hard one. I’m learning as I go. In this country we are keenly aware of color all the time. Whether it’s said or not it’s very apparent. I think to find a real balance with this you have to always be aware of who you are what you are but you can’t allow yourself to get put in a box, as hard as that is.
TGP: Especially professionally.
MJS: Especially professionally, yes. I’ve been working on that my entire career. In the beginning I thought the answer was not to shoot anyone who was ethnic, but then I thought it would be worse if I were to discriminate against my own people, or other ethnic people. So now I try to shoot everybody, and I’ve got to believe that the world will eventually change. Will it change in my lifetime? I don’t know. But, we are seeing things that are happening in our society that weren’t happening 10 years ago as far as influences, of, like, the hip hop thing, which has definitely taken over and had a new life of it’s own. But that’s not my work at all, it’s not in that vain at all, never has been.
 Ray Allen © 2001 Matthew Jordan Smith
TGP: At the same time, you have to think that you are going to be a part of whatever that change is, just as much as hip hop and everything else. You’re visible, and that can either be taken as a huge responsibility or an amazing opportunity.
MJS: I think it’s both actually. Responsibility and also opportunity, especially for me. I mean the first thing for me that I wanted to do with Sepia Dreams was inspire people who looked like me, because I saw that there were people who were not inspired, on a large scale, and I wanted to do my part in helping people see things they’d never seen before.
TGP: And therefore Sepia Dreams.
MJS: Yes. I think the message for Sepia Dreams is universal. The messenger is ethnic, but the message is universal. That you can do anything you put your mind to if you love it and you believe in yourself. I hate that it was categorized, you know, as a book just for African Americans, or just black people. But, when I speak about it, the message gets out, that it’s more than that. Whenever I speak about my book, to any audience, all of a sudden, it transcends race. And the audiences are very mixed, very often it’s skewed to being more Caucasian than black. And I love seeing that, that it can transcend color. I want to do the same thing with my work, to transcend color, and barriers. I want to break through in places where people haven’t before.
 N'Bushe Wright © 2001 Matthew Jordan Smith
TGP: I think what you said, transcending race, but transcending with race being part of it. That’s the most important thing. Things are changing but that’s the way they’re going to change.
MJS: Has to be.
TGP: The color doesn’t have to be taken out of things to make them universal.
MJS: Exactly, and I hope we’ll see more of that. I have to work hard and believe that it can change. Once you start believing that it can, you’re already doing it. I don’t think about race when it comes to putting my work out there. I know a lot of people do, but all I can do is show my best work and hope I can find the art buyer or art director who will see it the same way and then hire me. Hopefully that will happen more and more. Hopefully people will start seeing it more and more and accept it more and more.
Gear:
Matthew Jordan Smith uses: Mayima RZ 6x7 Camera with 110mm or 75mm lenses. >>Click here to read Matthew's Bio and Background.... >>Click here to read Matthew's Tips & Techniques on Lighting....
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