Matt Black photographs forgotten people and places. His work has received many honors and has been widely noted for its combination of emotional depth, social conviction, and visual intensity.
Matt grew up in a small town in California’s Central Valley, a vast agricultural area that is home to some of the poorest communities in the United States. He began taking photographs at a young age and worked as a newspaper photographer while in his teens. Among his first published photographs was a picture of farmworker leader Cesar Chavez breaking his 1988 fast. Matt went on to study Latin American and US Labor History at San Francisco State University, where he earned a BA with honors. Early travels in Mexico, Central and South America deepened his interest in changing rural economies, migration and cultural change, themes that he has been exploring photographically for over a decade.
Matt’s work has received grants and awards from the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, the California Arts Council, Pictures of the Year International, the California Council for the Humanities, the Alexia Foundation for World Peace, the Sunday Magazine Editors Association, Communication Arts, American Photography, Lightwork, and the Center for Photographic Projects. His work has also been named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and has received a Golden Eye award from the World Press Photo Foundation.
