Matt Martin is a twenty-six-year-old gallery/zine-shop owner. A love for all things rare flows through this Brightonian’s veins, because when he’s not busy doing his thing as a curator, he’s reviving the long-lost medium of spool-wound photography.
When and why did you start shooting pictures?
This first camera I ever got was a Canon 35mm Sure Shot from my dad. When I was about thirteen I used to take photos of me and my mates riding bikes and skateboarding and then try to make magazines. I then got really into photography about the age of seventeen/eighteen at college. I was really into graffiti, so I used to shoot my mates painting, then print that out on photocopies, and wheat paste them around my home town.
What is it you love about film photography?
I love what most film photographers love; the excitement of getting a film back. When I shoot on digital cameras I have to turn the screen off so I can’t see the image. It’s really off-putting, but film grain is one of the most beautiful things.
What are you passionate about – interests/hobbies outside of photography – and how does this inform the images you take?
I work as a photographer full-time and make zines and run a gallery in Brighton called B RAD Gallery, and I skate and play in bands. So I have always believed in DIY ethics since I was a teenager, I come from a really strong DIY scene down in Exeter, I just like making stuff.
Who or what inspires your work? Any other photographers?
Road trips are my main inspiration. Travelling with friends and shooting is what I love. You have so much more confidence when you’re not in your home town or even your own country. I shoot my best work when I’m on the road. The list is too long for all the photographers that have helped inspire me, but I’m happy I have met and worked with most of the photographers I really look up to. Tim Barber and Valerie Phillips would be the main two, not just for their photography but the way they work and live life.
What do you do for a living and how does photography fit into your life?
Photography is pretty much life at the moment. Without photography I would not have met half my close friends, travelled to the other side of the world, or been able to make zines and show work by amazing photographers all over.
How do you share your work? And what’s the editing process like for you? Are you trying to tell stories with your images?
Most my work goes into zines and exhibitions. I like to be able to group images together to tell a story, but the great thing about photography is people can make up their own story about an image. I run the photocopy club, so I spend a lot of time working with different images and that has really helped me to curate my own work. Making two images play off each other or interlink is part of the fun when doing zines.
Are your photos staged/posed or documentary? Can you describe why you choose to shoot in this way?
My work is mostly documentary. I like to be quick and capture a moment. It’s the whole thing about being able to freeze time. The camera is the only thing that can do that and that’s what I like about it.
If you had to take one photo that summed up your view on life, what would it capture? The shot with the old man chucking peace signs.
Are you a film photography fan? To be considered for a slot on the Huck site, send a folio of 10 analogue images to [email protected] using the subject line MY LIFE IN ANALOGUE.
Submissions made before December 20, 2013, will be entered into a competition to win a Lomography camera. See competition for further details.
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