Matt Mallams’ Street Textures
Wrinkled,
Ripped,,
Shredded Tattered By Mar tha Blanchfield
“I believe that photography is a continual investigation that constantly pushes our ability to perceive,” says photographer Matt Mallams. The new breed photographer, or young gun, travels light, shoots often and breaks new ground spinning “mistakes” into personal pieces of self-expression.
Meet Matt Mallams, Young Gun
While Matt Mallams was not quite steeped in Web 2.0 and did not sling all the latest tech gadgets while growing up on a large farm a couple miles outside of Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, he’s definitely part of the young, boundary-pushing photo crowd. In actuality, his new photography career took root in two unlikely pastimes— skateboarding and journal writing. Mallams and two buddies were wooed into skateboarding in high school. “What was funny about skateboarding in Iowa in 1993 was that no one was doing it, and no one understood what the hell we were doing,” he laughs. “Of course, back then there were no X Games, no Tony Hawk video games.” Mallams and pals Right: Found Photo, Ventura, CA, 2006
ALL PHOTOs COPYRIGHT © matt mallams
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spent every free hour after school skateboarding. Says Mallams, “It’s a lifestyle. When we weren’t skating we were watching skate videos. I had a mini-ramp in my garage, which meant I was in there all day long. In a parallel way, the freedom of skating really made me receptive to independent exploration; this eventually led me to art, music and finally photography.” Mallams continues, “Nothing much was going on in Iowa, so flipping through the skateboard magazines and watching the videos gave me a glimpse at pop culture and things happening in places like California and New York. I also had the opportunity to take two art class trips to Europe where I’d wander all day long with a camera through cities like Prague, Budapest and Florence. I started thinking how great it might be if I could make a living doing photography.” With a new artistic vision, Mallams applied and enrolled at Brooks Institute in Ventura, CA. While in school, he won a gold medal in the pictorial category of the College Photographer of the Year Contest in 2005 and 2006, as well as honorable mentions in the Personal Vision category. These accolades helped him gain acceptance to the renowned Eddie Adams Workshop in 2004, which Mallams re-
gards as “pivotal.” He goes on, “Being there really helped me see what I wanted to do, the people I wanted to work with and confirmed my path in photography. I’ve had the opportunity to go back every year since 2004.” Mallams also met New York City photographer Clay Patrick McBride at the workshop and was fortunate to get an internship with him, as well as an internship with Gerd Ludwig in Los Angeles.
Early View From the Street
Today, Mallams lives and works in San Diego, CA. Why San Diego? “Partly proximity and partly inspiration,” he says. “In my first year or two of shooting I was up for anything and I still am. This spot is very inspirational. I want to learn as much as I can so I let my work lead the way and it continues to drift toward street photography. To me there is nothing more exciting than exploring without preconception; being the fly on the wall. It’s an exciting challenge creating compositions with what’s given—working in response to a set of circumstances and conditions. Being outside with your camera is good training for the eye. It’s like doing visual calisthenics.” His favorite subjects to shoot are crowds in good, sharp light. Mallams is drawn to urban locales that are teeming with life and
the sensation of constant change. Among his favorite places to shoot are subways and trolley stations, street corners and contemporary art museums as well as places that he’s never been before. For him, street photography is about interaction and capturing the energy and exchange that goes on in these environments. Mallams says, “Some artists create installations in which the people and the viewer become the art. For me, street photography is just as rewarding. People are what make it. People are the magic. I’m always trying to put myself in random situations because that’s where interesting things and images happen—especially when taken out of context.” Mallams references a favorite photo of a young boy with a buck statue in the background. “The viewer would probably not know this was shot at a wedding,” he smiles. “I love how life continues to offer situations far more strange and beautiful than anything I could come up with. That’s what keeps me going, keeps me on my toes.” Mallams generally works with a Canon EOS 5D and 16–35mm lens plus an audio recorder. He sports clothing that doesn’t make him stand out and definitely no squeaky shoes. Traveling solo allows him freedom to pursue direction, objective, theme and subject. “But I’ll also have
shoot days with friends and my girlfriend. We’ll go to an event or spot and wander around. We eventually check in and see what each has come up with.” Back in his studio Mallams follows a pretty simple workflow: Using a Powerbook G4 he downloads memory cards to both internal and external hard drives, then he captions, keywords and edits in Photo Mechanic before further making adjustments in Photoshop. His biggest pet peeve: archive organization. “File names, keywords and having everything backed-up are essential. I store all files on hard drives plus archival DVDs, and I keep an additional hard drive in a safe deposit box. I’ll also make prints of favorites whenever possible,” Mallams says. Peers recognize his unique style for its double or triple reflection, busy situation appeal of complex layers and images with no real focal point. “I enjoy shooting through windows to gain a double-exposure feel for texture and depth,” he shares. “The reflection idea actually came to me from journal writing. I thought it would be interesting to go out and look for collages in real life.”
Journalizing the Journey
Aside from skateboarding, Mallams also points to journal writing as being very influential to his photography. From an early age he squirreled away small inspirations; found leaves, concert tickets, letters from friends, to-do lists and writings. “On August 13, 2001 at 8:30 p.m. I started my first journal and I haven’t stopped yet,” he says, “I’ve always been into drawing so sketchbooks are a part of my life. On that date I started adding things to the books besides drawings. It has evolved into these great weathered textures and massive collections of stuff. I kept finding these interesting and surreal things. I couldn’t imagine passing over a crumbled piece of paper on the road with someone’s ‘good and bad’ list of their classmates written in magic marker—I’d have to pick it up.” Today his 25-plus journals are not only integral creative aids, but have also serendipitously become clever marketing tools. “My journal collection is a big part of what I do so I knew from the start I wanted to share these with others. The books have definitely helped me get new clients. They
show another side of what I do.” Mallams adds that the journals also work in reverse to inspire his photography, in which ideas evolve with a natural rhythm. “What’s interesting is that I never have a preconceived idea about what will go into any journal and that’s the same with my street photography,” Mallams says. “I try to add things about once or twice a week. Between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m. on those days I spread everything that I’ve come across in the past few days on the living room floor. I put things together in compositions. There really are no mistakes—it’s like street photography.”
Street Meets Stage
Mallams takes to the streets nearly every day, but one of his biggest career goals is to shoot big events such as the Olympics, Super Bowl or a presidential campaign. “I’d like to cover these in street-photography style.” And in another vein he’s looking to attract more photography work from the music community. “I’ve always been fascinated by guitar players. I love how they all use the instrument. Each musician
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expresses himself in so many different ways. It’s very much like photography. We all use the same tool, but we each see and record the world very differently.” For his fledgling music photography pursuits, photographing musicians anywhere but on stage (at home, on the road, from the wings), Mallams has landed images of bands in The FADER and Revolver magazines. Work is coming in as a result of right place, right time, networking and a little different look. He’s very comfortable in the music environment because once again he operates like a fly on the wall. “It would be great to go on tour and come back with a body of work from a single band.” Pressed to describe a dream shoot, Mallams says he’d be thrilled to photograph a handful of famed guitarists, some of whom aren’t with us anymore, such as Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jimi Hendrix and Dimebag Darrell. As a young gun photographer starting to build his business, it’s almost a natural that Mallams has learned to make the most of Web 2.0 social marketing tools and techniques to grab attention and cus-
tomers. “Old fashioned word-of-mouth has been the most successful marketing technique for me, but I find working online, marketing and making the most of my website, plus personal email blasts to be very effective.” Mallams has turned the Internet into a gold mine by staying visible. He’s diligent about keeping his name and newest images in front of peers and potential customers. He does this by regularly adding his own images to target photo sites and
by adding personal comments to others’ posts. He also tracks and contributes to photo hubs such as www.sportsshooter. com and www.aphotoaday.org. And he’s also a founding member of photo collective www.aevumphoto.com, which further rounds out a sense of community building in both the old and new school sense of the word. From the street, backstage or living room floor at 3 a.m., Mallams knows that perseverance, creativity, and remaining true to a vision and passion are the keys to success. Words of advice to peers: “Go to museums, any museum, get educated, be curious. The more you know about the past the more we can change the future for the better.” Most importantly, he notes, “I want to inspire others to keep journals. I think the journal writing process can really be a creative way to form ideas and new visions.” To see more of Mallams’ work visit his website www.mattmallams.com. Martha Blanchfield is a freelance writer and amateur photographer. She has more than 15 years experience as a corporate communications professional for nonprofit, photography and technology clients.