Addams Family Musical starring Nathan Lane & Bebe Neuwirth begins today March 7 and I was lucky enough to be asked to do the photography for it.

The producers and directors were extremely open and allowed me to use the inspiration from the show and Charles Addams’ original artwork to create some of the scenes.

Besides the Broadway poster below I also created a shot with the family in front of their gothic Victorian home as well individual portraits of each of the family members. Which I’ll look forward to sharing in days to come.

I’m pretty sure John Hodgman is grateful at the long series of Apple Ads he’s been in but probably constantly comes up against the annoying “hey it’s PC” from strangers on the street.

What people may or may not know is that John is also a best selling author, humorist and self described ‘minor’ television personality. Notably as special guest correspondant on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

I photographed John the other day and he struck me as one of the wittiest guys I’ve met. Just humble and funny and from what I’ve read, a Mac user. Go figure.

On a photoshoot one day a well respected Art Buyer Liz Miller-Gershfeld described my work as Wabi Sabi. I didn’t know what she meant but hoped she wasn’t swearing at me in Japanese. It turns out it was one of the most wonderful and accurate descriptions in my mind of my work.

Wabi Sabi is defined as - a basic concept of Japanese aesthetics, stressing unpretentiousness, plainness, earthiness, and satisfaction with imperfection

The beauty in imperfection is something that cuts deep with me. It’s how I see the world. The tragic beauty of our journey in life and all it’s wear and tear and missteps along the way. The wrinkles, laugh lines, grey hairs, nervous smiles, world weary eyes. To me these really tell the story as much as any paragraph can and should be celebrated.

This isn’t to say they have to be the most quirky looking geeks on the planet to hold my interest. The fact is, there is this dynamic tension of putting our best face forward warts and all with even the most beautiful of subjects. The stare of insecurity, the unaffected gaze of a botox beauty, the prideful pose rehearsed one too many times in the mirror. The fact is nobody is perfect and it’s finding the very imperfections that make us all human that I find beautiful, honest and worthy of photographing.

There are some that never want to see or show anything that is less than perfect. There are two promises I make to those, 1) I’ll never be interested enough to photograph you and 2) I’ll never force you to view the imperfect and honest beauty of those I’m fortunate enough to capture.

My work tends to either be established personalities or interesting characters that stand out in a crowd. People always ask where I find my subjects.

The truth is, my wonderful producer Marian Walsh either casts them, including streetcasting high and low, or calls upon a handful of valuable contacts who have very unique and world class talent.

One such place, actually THE place that rules them all, is called The Agency. Headed by Simon Rogers and Oliver Zehetner-Loffredo.

From circus freaks, little people, big people, hairy people, tattooed people, to yes, beautiful people, The Agency has never let me down when I need that person in a million that just has that something special about them.

Have you ever heard a song and thought,’I have to hear more of that!’. And then when you do you’re hooked?!

That sums up my thoughts on everything that comes out of April Smiths talented mouth. Not only a killer voice but the melodies are timeless and completely original. Old school and yet something entirely new.

Well, I was fortunate enough to shoot her new album packaging which is available for preorder here.

We took the idea of a band that goes down with the ship. Still entertaining till the last breath. I created a sort of victorian feel for it. If you get a chance have a listen, she’s going to be huge this year!!!

The holiday issue of TimeOut New York hit stands last week and in it, they feature Scharlett Johannson and Liev Schreiber who will be starring in “A View From the Bridge” which will be performed on broadway at the end of January. Click here to read the article and see some more of the images.

Entertainment Weekly’s “Best of the Decade” issue recently hit newstands and in it, they feature John Lasseter, the chief creative officer for both Pixar and Disney, as one of the “Entertainers of the Decade”. Matt took this image of John under the Pixar lamp at the Pixar animation studios in California.

Matt shot the Halls cough drop campaign which rolls out this week in subways, newspapers and all throughout North America. These quirky, heroic and proud portraits show people fighting through cold and flu season with Halls.

Last week, Matt shot the cover for TimeOut New York, which hits stands today. The story is about holiday drinking and the final image depicts a man covered in ice with a drink in his hand. For the look of the ice, makeup artist Jane Choi used her expertise to give the model a frozen look. Click here for a link to the final image.

PDN recently announced the winners of the PDN PIX Digital Imaging Awards, featuring the best and most innovative images of the year. The judging reflects not only the excellence of the images themselves but also the retouching, digital techniques and CGI artistry that goes into producing each image.

Matt received first place in the Portraits/Celebs/Music Category. He won the judges over with both his humorous portrait of the “Godfather of Web-based comedy” Eugene Mirman, and his ability to composite his photograph of Mirman with a self created CGI background in order to deliver the final image. Read the rest of this entry »