Matt Black

 Matt Black

Matt Black is an American photographer who was born in 1970. He grew up in California and worked as a photographer starting in high school although he got his degree in Latin American History from San Francisco State University. He was most well-known for his documentary-style photography and he focused a lot on social issues including migration, poverty, and the environment (Wikipedia).


The first photo I am choosing to talk about is this one. My favorite thing about this photo is the composition of it. I like that the subject is framed in the doorway but I also love the placement of the pans on the wall closer to the front. I think the repetition of circles (from the pans, his head, and the light) works really well in this photo and I also love that the light source is coming from behind him. It also works well compositionally because it follows the rule of thirds as he is off-centered.

The other photograph Im choosing the write about is this one. I may be biased because I love dogs, but I like this picture. It has good leading lines and the contrast of the dark dog on the light background is really interesting. I also love how people are doing something in the picture but the dog is the subject. It looks like a candid moment in a field and I think that’s cool.



Overall, I really like Matt Black’s style of photography. Of course, it doesn’t help that I love documentary-style photography. I just think it’s easy to appreciate his work. You can tell that he puts a lot of time, effort, and thought into making his photos compositionally strong while documenting people in their everyday lives.


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