Photography with Matt Hind

Hey Matt! You’re a photographer based in London, but your photography is often set in rural and seaside locations. What is it that draws you out of the city for your work? Could you pick a photo of yours that would exemplify what you do for someone unfamiliar with your style?

Whilst I have spent much of my working life based in London there is always a hankering for the countryside of my childhood.

I grew up in the Cotswolds and spent family holidays on the North Norfolk coast. I continue to be influenced by writers such as Thomas Hardy and early Dutch and English landscape painters.

In the end I think I am always trying to get back to a rural idyll, if one ever existed, and use fashion shoots as an excuse to do that.

These days our lives are saturated with images. What will always catch your eye in an image, and make it stand out from the rest?

What always grabs my attention is a palpable connection between the photographer and the subject. An authentic relationship. Photography is coming under scrutiny 

for being exploitative. It is also acknowledged as having inevitably supported dominant Western cultural values that are now rightly being challenged. I am now captivated by the narrative that supports a series of images and

wary of superficial visual impact. It’s why I find collaborative projects so interesting and also the increasing influence of ‘auto-ethnographic’ approaches to making work and telling new and challenging stories. It is arguable that these refreshing visual stories could only have been embraced in this era of social media. 

The content of some of your photography, the composition and the waterpolo players especially, remind me of work by Horst. Is he a conscious influence on your work? Where else do you find inspiration for your photography?

I was aware of Horst and his classical referencing of the human figure in his fashion work. Bruce Weber was a big early influence. He had a playful way of depicting masculinity through sport and fashion. I first saw his work in Per Lui magazine when working in Italy in the 1980s. 

His series of the American Olympic is a great mix of classic and contemporary photographic style.

What would you like to offer up as your WFTP hidden gem?

Literature! It’s a great source of inspiration and something that is a little bit lost in creative education today. 

I particularly enjoyed The Rings of Saturn by WG Sebald. Written from notes taken on a long walk through Suffolk, non-fiction writing that combines, historical narrative with 

imagination and observation.

Thanks a lot Matt, it’s been great to learn more about your photography. Please give us your links and social media so we can follow what your work!

www.matthind.com

@_matthind