Ed. of 10
3 A.P.

Biography

Matthew Kohnke began his photography career in 2001, working with Polaroid manipulations. Since then he has continued to develop his skills as an artist by attending The Maine Photography Workshop, and later The Sante Fe Workshop. While living in New York City, he attended a workshop at the School of Visual Arts, and spent a year assisting fashion photographers, working for clients such as: Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Saks 5th Avenue, Victoria Secret and for magazines such as Elle, British Elle, British Vogue, German Vogue, Surface, Visionary and the Vanity Fair 2004 Rock n Roll cover. Since, he has returned to his native city of New Orleans to pursue his own body of work.

Artist Statement

I dont know what has captured me more, photography itself or the subjects I have photographed. My images are a chance to record and show others the way I see the world and the lives that occupy it. I have had to slow down and observe from a quiet place. Sometimes it is easy to forget there is more, something simple waiting to be seen in a different way or for the first time; it is easy to forget there is more to enjoy, influencing or affecting us. To the viewer the image captured by the photographer can be a short escape, if only for a moment from routine, repetition or inability to break away from the habits ruling the way we live. The creative process is literally a journey for me, countless hours spent alone driving, looking, almost hunting for an image. Most times I let myself go, driving in a direction with no destination in mind.

Slowly, as I relax it becomes easier to see the subtitles usually missed; eventually opening up opportunities until something magically reveals itself to me. Creating something beautiful isnt difficult. There are certain components that can accomplish this task with a little effort. Finding a subject with some design elements, maybe its a seashell, an antique fan, a glimmer from a toy marble or the petals of a flower. Find the form, the rhythm, a clean background, using positive or negative space to enhance the image, then quality printing, and a nice frame and with ease you have created something simple enough to adorn walls in most settings. The challenge is to go beyond beauty, to transcend it and project feeling and mood, to allow and help the subject to say something about itself; the possibility of narrating time and place, a story not just a beautiful picture. Ive printed all the work by hand personally. Weeks of constant work in the darkroom to produce these photographs, each in editions of ten. It is important for me to let people know they are buying a photograph that is special and unique and limited, created in every aspect from start to finish by the artist personally, something that has become uncommon in Color Photography today. A Color Photograph has only two concepts that are similar to black and white printing- Density and Contrast. Once those are established the battle of color correction begins, a difficult time consuming step that involves technical skills as well as the use of artistic licenses. Sometimes there are slight hues, casts of color undetectable to most eyes, but intentionally left by the artist to enhance a mood the photographer believes is critical to the language needed to describe a particular image. Much of the lighting in my photographs is taken at unusual times or conditions. Light has wave- lengths, known as color temperature, and film captures these light sources and their temperature differently than the human eye. Night Photography may consist of a number of different light sources- moonlight, florescent, tungsten, halogen, twilight; whatever the case, they all give off different colors. Correcting these differences is a balancing act, as mixtures of light source often appear simultaneously in many of my photographs. It becomes a bit of a dance to know how each light and its color temperature affects the other and adjusts accordingly to achieve the final product.

The photographs have richness and clarity.

Exhibiting the photographs in large dimensions, as I have before in 27×36, allows the subjects and the environment the opportunity to breathe and not become claustrophobic. I want the audience to identify minute detail, to have the ability to step into the image, and feel the stillness or movement, the lighting, shadows and color.

Nostalgia, holding onto something before it is lost forever has served as my inspiration for me often. Our surroundings change daily, and our memories provoke feeling and thought. The photographs are a slice of Americana, unique to our home and no other part of the world, and to our vanishing landscape that has become more transparent from place to place. It is hard to achieve mystery in unmanipulated, straight photography, but if a photographer accomplishes this goal, the viewers are then freed to imagine and hopefully create their own story. In my photographs there exist a sense of solitude and silence, hoping the audience feels as if they are holding their breath, something everyone can identify with. In each photograph the subject is something common, maybe something passed by everyday, unnoticed, undistinguished, and unremarkable. I like to wonder my subjects had a grander life. I like to help the viewer imagine that like us they have had a full wealth of experience that color what they have become, a history. Although now they are alone, Ive tried to capture their dignity. I find something peaceful in each subject, in their solitude, a calmness Ive adored. Internally, I think we all seek to be at peace, to be content when were alone, or conversely, missing the good company we once shared, and, when we do, wish we had more of it in our lives.

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