FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHER: MATT KIM

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FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHER: MATT KIM

pierwsza strona copy 300x168 FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHER: MATT KIM As a high school student in Hayward, CA, Matt Kim never assumed that he was going to do photography for a living. All he knew was that he was captivated by it. He was one of those guys who bought film in bulk and developed it in his bathtub; that is, when he wasn’t walking the streets of nearby San Francisco and Oakland, capturing urban slices of life among their not-always friendly denizens.

Capturing real moments and fleeting, intense emotions is almost always what Kim has been driven to do. And while he has not always been welcome among his subjects on the streets, he is embraced and respected among wedding-day celebrants as he captures those authentic slices of life in churches and reception venues. And that suits him just fine.

FINDING HIS MUSE

Matt first got turned on to good photography at a class he took in high school, but the instruction there wasn’t enough to satisfy his curiosity and desire to learn more. So he did some research on his own, and while still in high school he took some night classes in photography at junior college. “I used to cut classes and walk the streets of San Francisco, dreaming of being Henri Cartier-Bresson or André Kertész in the streets of Paris.”

When you’re 16 you don’t always know exactly what you want to do. “I can’t say that the passion for photography was so strong that I was going to drop everything else,” Matt notes, “It wasn’t so much a lack of drive or confidence, but more a lack of direction, mentors and advisors.”

All he knew is that he was pulled to it and enjoyed it.

BALANCING MONEY AND PASSION

Despite his passion for photography, Matt found himself in the position of having to get a job after high school. “It was the early 1990s. The photography work hadn’t really furthered my career at that point; I didn’t know the right people,” he says.

Matt got into the latest technology thing at the time, which was desktop publishing, publication design, and later, Web design. He pursued some freelancing, and worked at a small web development company in Berkeley, while also doing portraits for friends and still taking pictures while pursuing personal projects. He now feels that his work in graphic design ultimately helped his photo composition.