AN INTERVIEW WITH Matthew Tammaro
Matthew Tammaro is a talented photographer from Toronto, Canada, who shoots fashion models and musicians, friends and strangers. He can be called “a poet” for his ability to create a poetic story in his works, especially in his sexual and intimate nudes. Vrag talked to Matthew about his university experience and choice of models.
Vrag: What brought you into photography and what means photography for you?
Matthew Tammaro: I always studied art in school, and it seemed to fit really well with me (or so I thought), and I liked photographs. They’re realness had a more potent impact on me than drawing or painting. So I gave those up, and started photographing in earnest.
Vrag: You received a BFA in Photography. Tell us about your university experience and how did it help you as a photographer?
Matthew Tammaro: My university experience was good and bad. I think I expected more out of the curriculum. We had really old equipment, and most of the professors were out of the loop when it came to contemporary work. That said, there were maybe three or four professors that were so brilliant, and as a group we sort of propelled ourselves more – so than if we were to be in that “ideal” situation. So if anything, school was an immediate connection between you and others and their ideas.
Vrag: What equipment do you usually use for shooting?
Matthew Tammaro: Hmm, I go through moods. Sometimes you know what a photo needs, and others the camera directs how the shoot will turn out. I have a contax 139 quartz…a nice little 35mm. A hasselblad. A fuji GW670III. A Nagaoka field 4×5, and a polaroid land camera.
Vrag: What should a person have to attract your attention, to make you shoot him/her?
Matthew Tammaro: That’s a good question, and hard to answer! I think I’m attracted to beauty first and foremost…that being said, everyone really is beautiful in one way or another. Some evoke certain emotions and moods, and so you’ll want them for those specific traits. A lot of my personal work are people I’m close with, and whether I ask to photograph them or they are part of a moment already is all part of the creating of the photograph.
Vrag: What are your current projects?
Matthew Tammaro: I would like to direct more of my work towards fashion and start shooting that seriously. Also my personal work was waning a bit throughout the summer, but it’s given me a bit more of a steady vision for how I’d like to treat colours, so a bit of a change of aesthetic in my new work.
Interview by: Kristina Voytovich
