Matt Lutton Redux

I wrote a bit about the PhotoShelter Elevation 2008 student contest winner Matt Lutton last week, as I was extremely impressed with his portfolio and his persistence in covering a wide array of subjects. Today Lutton is featured on Flak Photo, as the other Elevation winners will be through the week, so I thought it an appropriate time to post an informal Q&A with Matt. I think his perspective is an interesting one; he’s just starting out as a photojournalist, was inspired initially (like the rest of us) by Robert Frank, has already connected with his Magnum heroes, shot for the Fader, and is back shortly to Belgrade for another month of shooting. Also he has a blog.

Oh- and he wants all you editors to know he’ll be in New York next week if any of you want to meet with him. This guy is in it to win it.

Matt Lutton, from Kosovo: On the Edge

You seem to have accomplished quite a bit (and certainly covered a lot of ground) in a very short period of time; How did you get started in
photography, and how did you choose to explore Kosovo and the Balkans?

I joke that I got started in photography because of the arts
requirement at my high school, and that because I couldn’t or wouldn’t
sing, dance, draw, act, or paint, I had to take the photo classes.
I ended up falling in love with the work, of course, and I eventually got
started taking pictures of people rather than airplanes or
architecture, probably with Robert Frank’s The Americans. That book
changed my life. Going back to a
young age, I’ve always had a fascination with the Soviet Union and
Russians and when I got to the University of Washington I knew I wanted
to study in this field. The opportunity came up in the spring of 2007
to study abroad through my school to the Balkans (Bosnia, Croatia and
Serbia), and I jumped on it. While I’ve always been interested in the
region, the Kosovo story really came to be because I was nearby
already. Last Spring was full of speculation that independence would
come in June and I put myself in position to be there when it happened.
As we all know, this ended up being pushed back by a half-year, but I
still was able to do a story about what I consider the stagnation and
challenges Kosovars of all ethnicities face.

Tell me about your Homeless in Seattle project. What is the culture of the
photo program at your school; is this part of your life as a
photographer, or are you largely independent?

While the University of Washington has a photo program, I’ve pretty
much stayed away through my time here, as it is much more ‘fine arts’
based and I’m very much more oriented to documentary and journalism. I
did work for the student newspaper for a number of years as a staff
photographer and photo editor, and this was great training for dealing
with deadlines and tough assignments, but most everything I’m proud of
and show people has been very independently produced (New Orleans, the
“I See A Darkness” project, Kosovo).

The Homeless story springs from a
small commission by a local charity in 2006 to shoot some pictures for
a slide show for a workshop they were having. For as long as I can
remember I’ve been concerned about homelessness and in particular
homeless veterans, and I took this as a great opportunity to actually
get started on a proper photo essay on the subject. With some fits and
starts, I’ve continued to work on this project in my spare time and am
proud that it will be a major exhibition at Seattle City Hall this
summer, if I can line up funding for the prints. I should also mention
that the project was honored with a small grant by the Alexia
Foundation last year, which has helped a little.

Matt Lutton, from Kosovo: Homeless in Seattle

My education came
from photo books (I spent way too much of my money in college on
these..) and from devouring the Magnum archive. I’ve joked that M. Scott Brauer is
my favorite non-Italian photographer; my biggest inspirations are Alex
Majoli and Paolo Pellegrin of Magnum. I actually had the chance to do a
workshop with Paolo (and Jonas Bendiksen, and some other Magnum
shooters) in Oslo in March. Great, crazy time that was.

Have you been doing any editorial work? Connecting with any editors in particular?

I’ve been to New York a couple of times now to make the rounds of
editors and get my book seen, and it seems things are starting to pay
off. I did shoot a portrait for The Fader a couple of weeks ago, which
is a very cool thing because I consider that magazine as one of the
finest displays of great photography around these days. Big thanks to
Phil Bicker for that opportunity as well as his help in selecting me
for the ELEVATION contest. I’ve been making some good connections with
Newsweek actually, which I hope will eventually be a good outlet for a
lot of my international story ideas, and also am close to shooting a
major project in Moldova (Transdniester, to be specific) for ESPN the
Magazine.

What’s next for you? What would be a dream job?
 
Next for me
is tying up the loose ends with the old projects and negotiating
details about new assignments. First up is the Homeless project, which
I’ll shooting, editing and fundraising for right up until the opening in
July. One of my most personal projects is the New York work in ‘I See A
Darkness’, which I’ll be soon be independently publishing with some
friends, one a designer and the other an essayist, and I’ve got to
finish the 35 more rolls of film I shot for it in New York last week.
Upcoming is the story in Moldova, which hopefully will happen at the
end of the summer. In the middle, I’m trying to negotiate a quick trip
back to the Balkans later this month to visit friends, do research for
my eventual relocation to Belgrade and hopefully shoot an assignment or
two.

Matt Lutton, from I See a Darkness

My dream job actually is in my sights right now, as I’ve proposed it
as my thesis project, and I’m working through oodles of grant proposals
for that as I type. I don’t want to give too much away, but it is to
take place in Eastern Siberia and will be the ultimate confluence of my
academic and personal interests in Russia and my documentary interests
in the people and politics of underrepresented and critical issues. In
this case, it is about rising nationalism, oil wealth and environmental
and social degradation. Meaty stuff, stay tuned this fall to see how it
all comes together!

Which image, from all your projects, do you like best?

Matt Lutton, from Homeless in Seatlle

“Michelle, on the streets after being kicked out of her apartment with her husband after complaining about unsafe conditions, investigates an abandoned paper bag for “food or
money”, explaining that in her circumstance, she cannot afford to let go of even the slightest chance that someone left something valuable behind.”

That was a very difficult day with an incredible woman in a very sad situation, I almost cried when she told me that. We were actually on our way to a park where they were handing out food, she knew she was going to get a warm meal, and she still felt the need to search that bag. Coldest day I’ve ever experienced in Seattle, and Michelle, who suffered some sort of mental illness and claimed to be pregnant, had to sit by the side of the road panhandling. Her sign said ‘even a smile helps’, and still by far the majority of people wouldn’t even look at her. She had to send her younger children to live with her 21 year old son in Portland while she and her husband waited for a new apartment or to be let back in to the old one, in the meantime they slept at an emergency shelter at Key Arena downtown. The last picture in the homeless story is of the two of them cuddling while in line for food. I haven’t been able to find her again after that day in January ’07, but she is very much the reason why I’ve kept going with this project and am so committed to getting the project shown in City Hall, where the politicians will have to walk by a 48×48″ print of her everyday. This picture was taken maybe 100 yards from the mayor’s office.