Matt Mawson

Interview with the photographer Matt Mawson.

Could you start with a brief thematic introduction to your work?

I guess I'd be classified as a street photographer because I work in the street. I work in a spontaneous and intuitive way, with half a mind on composition and the other looking for a full framed and uncropped picture. My goal is to achieve an image with a combination of strong emotional content with interesting composition and interesting light. However, I also strive for ‘happy accidents’, when something unplanned happens in the frame –like a person walking in front of the lens. That can often make a picture into a good photograph.

I noticed that you often face the sun in your pictures. Do you consider yourself a light tamer photographer rather than an experimental one?

I always try to do something different from the next photographer, otherwise why bother? Much of my work now is for corporate clients and the style of corporate photography use generally flat lighting with the sun behind so I did the opposite and many clients looked at it and thought that’s different. It adds another dimension using flare and especially lens flare (Photoshop CS4 even has a program to make lens flare, but it does not look good). I used to experiment with it a lot and now I know how it all works so in that respect I am a light tamer but I never stop experimenting with light. I love using light to add something else to what could be a boring picture.

Beside your camera, the things you never forget when you travel are…

Obviously when the job is paid by a client I take a MacBook Pro, 500GB portable hard drives (Western Digital Passport or LaCie Rugged) and all the stuff to upload pictures to a my online server so the client can see them immediately I get back to the hotel or WiFi spot. But when I take off on a personal project I travel light. I take a small rugged cell phone and a 250GB media storage hard drive that reads CompactFlash cards and a spare 250GB drives so I can make 2 back up copies of all the 64GB CompactFlash cards I use in my Canon 5D mk2s. Everything can fit in the pockets of my Belstaff motorcycle jacket.
I never forget headache pills, muscle relaxing pills and stomach upset pills and small hygienic wipes to wash with. I also take a phrase book of the country I am going to.

When you are in a new place, do you prefer visit markets, cemeteries or churches?

I would first visit the market. You can get a feel of the country from the market and you can obviously eat there, if there is a cemetery I may go there to relax because I like the ambience and sometimes I would go to a church to cool off or take shelter from the rain.

You’ve been in so many and contrasted places. The comfort and the cleaning conditions aren’t the same. By now, you might know the life isn’t fair. Do you still complain?

I may complain about poor public transport back in London, everyone does, but never in a foreign country. I like to experience new things and away from home everything is new every minute of the day. I may never go back so I make the most of it.
I can also feel extremely sad and angry especially when children are caught up in armed conflicts or humanitarian disasters.

During the 80s you were working for Aid Agencies documenting social crisis in the world. You are not working as a photojournalist any more?

No, I work purely commercial for design and ad agencies. Now due to the economic crisis these agencies have very tight budgets and they always want the images yesterday so the experience I got of working alone and very quickly from documenting international social crises is very useful and important now in what I do commercially. These days they also like a spontaneous documentary feel to the projects. They like the style and they may like to use a different style next year.

How that experience affected your photographic researching?

As I said, I work fast and I shoot a lot of images, with much experimentation. You cannot miss a crucial shot because you cannot go back and re-shoot it. I bring that to commercial work. I have also learnt to be very patient and polite with everyone.

In a text for the One step beyond –an art project about landmines, Pedro Rosa Mendes affirms that the human condition must be reinvented. Do you agree? How do you thing photography can help?

Humans are basically decent people who want to live in peace. Governments can remember the past and imagine the future but what they can never do is learn from the past, they are always making the same mistakes again and always will. I think it is the governments and unhinged dictators of countries that need re-inventing, and only the collective will of the people can do that.
Documenting the evils in the world through truthful photography helps to bring it closer to the people. The horror of the Vietnam War was brought vividly to people’s breakfast tables and images of the famine in Ethiopia sparked one of the biggest gathering of people together for concerts and speeches so superficially photography helps.
Photography helps spread the message and everyone who owns a mobile phone can take a picture, the internet is our life and is full of images. We are bombardered with information and I think most people now turn to ‘soft’ stories, celebrity stories and everything else does not make much impression. We retreat to where it is safe and cozy. But having said that, big stories with big pictures grab people’s attention. Look at the images of the events of 9/11. There were pictures and very few words. The pictures said it all.

Matt Mawson is an English photographer who lives in Mazatlán, Mexico.