One of the things I love most in life is traveling and meeting friends of friends. Last fall while out in NYC visiting my buddy rick I crossed paths with one Matthew Brown. To say this kid is energetic is a vast understatement. Within the first few hours of meeting him I felt like he could walk into a retirement home with a 30 rack of Stone’s and have the place rocking all night long. Matt doesn’t just party hard he works hard too and it show’s in his photography. I was able to get a rare interview with Matt as he seems to always be on the go. Check it out after the jump and make sure you check out Matt’s site too.
Let’s start things of nice and simple. What’s your name, age, rank and serial number?
Matt Brown, 24 years old, sandwich master, serial number 17
And where is it that you’re from?
Erskine Lakes New Jersey
What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen lately?
Where do I begin? I’m like a maniac magnet. For example just in the last few weeks I saw a businessman in a nice suit hauling ass on a big wheeled unicycle as if he was late for a meeting, I saw some guy driving a golf cart on 25th street like it was a real car, and a dude that had spurs on his rain boots, But the funniest one was when I was on the train the other night. There weren’t many seats left and this jacked dude in a full dress (holding a dry cleaning bag) gets on and sits next to me, so I’m like great I have to sit next to this muscle man wearing a dress I hope this doesn’t get weird, so the next stop a woman that thinks she’s a man gets on and sits next to him! and for some reason I think this is the funniest thing in the world and it takes every ounce of energy for me not to laugh out loud, But I’ll tell you I would pay money to go back in time sit on the opposite side and take a photograph of that dynamic duo they were so envious of each other it was priceless.
How long have you been behind the lens?
About 7 years, I started shooting BMX for fun late in high school. I moved to the city after I graduated, it just kind of grew from there.
What would one find in your camera bag?
Most likely a 5D Mark2 a 24-105mm Lens, a 50mm lens, a 24mm lens, a couple pocket wizards, some handle mount strobes, a G10 or a 20D for a back up, and either a sandwich, or an empty bag that used to have a sandwich in it.
You like to ride BMX right?
Hell yea! Animal Bikes and Skavenger all day! I don’t get the chance to ride that much anymore but when I do it’s the best
What’s more fun, shooting BMX or riding?
Oh riding for sure, I’ll still shoot ads and stuff with homies here and there but my days of hauling around a heavy ass bag everywhere are over. Now I just want to cruse and have fun like back in the day.
Most interesting shoot you’ve worked on?
Hands down the weirdest job was the “Pimp my Trailer” shoot for the art of story telling magazine. I shot RIME painting a woman’s trailer home. Just search pimp my trailer in YouTube and you can kind of get an idea of how weird that day was. But I shot a really sick job with EA sports earlier in the year. We were on the road for 2 weeks, in a different city every night, I got to see a lot of the country and shoot a ton of portraits it was a dream job. I also got to shoot Fat Joe so that was a plus.
Coolest trip you’ve been on?
I went to South America last winter. We went to Argentina, Uruguay, and hiked the Andes in Peru for 4 days and saw Machu Pichu. That was unreal.
Who are your favorite photographers?
Walker Evans, William Eggleston, Chris Buck, Larry Clark, and Rob Doleki, just off the top of the head.
In this day and age everyone has a camera of some sort, you think anyone can be a photographer or you have to have an eye for it?
To have a career in photography you need to have an eye and great technical knowledge, but the fact that everyone has a camera at all times creates this new dynamic where technically horrible photographs are making the front pages of newspapers because the time, place, and subject are so strong that it really doesn’t matter and I don’t think there is anything wrong with that from a photojournalism stand point.
If you could go anywhere to shoot where would you go?
It’s a tie Between South Africa and India
What’s your favorite photo you’ve taken?
I shot a flick of Ralph Sinisi, a dude I looked up to as kid, doing a wallride at the Animal warehouse, It was originally for the ESPN site, and Animal ended up using it for one of their 10 year anniversary shirts that was real sick it meant a lot
Where can people find your work?
DIME Magazine, Popular Mechanics, The Art of Storytelling Magazine, EXPN.com, random BMX Mags, Hue Magazine, and http://www.mattybrownphotography.com
Thanks for your time I know you have to be onyoway…
Hahaha thank you bro…I’m ohnmahway!
