Getting To Know: Matt Lambert | Raw Optimism We first came across the work of Berlin based American photographer Matt Lambert in 2012 via his video Heile Gänsje. The film was praised for its unflinching depiction of the confusion and brutality of youth. Lambert, never one to shy away from controversial themes, often delves into the alluring and vulnerable world of the young and reckless, choosing to focus on males on the cusp of adulthood. Having already worked with with fashion powerhouses Gucci and Marc Jacobs, Lambert operates comfortably between the world of filmmaking and photography. His latest creation is a provocative zine created with his husband entitled VITIUM. Here Lambert talks candidly with us about the thoughtful process behind his work and why Berlin is still the most enjoyable place to create. Your work focuses on young men on the cusp of adulthood, the majority of whom have never stood in front of a camera before. Boys you’ve met online, male escorts, fresh-faced models, each of these interactions creates its own story. What I get a sense of as a viewer is this mystery of youth and a disregard for the establishment. With my film projects, even if they manifest themselves in a very abstract symbolic form, there’s an incredible amount of philosophical and sociological thought that goes into everything I make. But with the photos it’s sometimes like – this is an interesting person so I’m going to shoot them. A lot of it becomes a way to investigate myself. And my husband is quite a good editor as well so a lot of the thinking behind the shoots come from us sitting together and he’ll say, ‘that doesn’t look like a photo you took’, and I’ll be like, ‘what the fuck does that even mean?’ So sometimes it starts with people analysing what I’ve shot and why. I suppose there’s a desire and a curiosity for me to explore my youth still, as with many artists, and many gay artists in particular.
What are you trying to capture when you’re exploring your youth? Well I never made work like that when I was at that age. I wasn’t in touch with my sexuality in the same way that I am now and there was also an anxiety from a lot of violence around me. It’s a revisiting of a time when I didn’t have the visual tools, or the voice to explore those ideas. But I think in general it’s a time that’s incredibly magical and exciting in a person’s life. Berlin is a city that is dominated by youth. There’s this sense of wonder that exists here. If you go to New York and shoot people who’re twenty years old, they’re all doing internships and they’re all so fucking serious but in Berlin there’s this sense of unbridled, raw optimism and wonderment and that is really special. It’s an age as well where people. . . they’re pure beings. I get bored when someone becomes entrenched in a subculture. When someone is so