Featured Artist Matthew Cortellesi

Photographer Matthew Cortellesi captures New York City as an insider with an innovative eye and fascinating style. Visit his website to see more of his portfolio.

 

 

I think of myself as a storyteller. The stories I hope to tell are expressed through my photography. My pictures are designed to never tell the whole story, but rather leave some room for the audience to develop their own.

 

 

I was born in Greenwich Village, New York but I grew up in a town just outside the city. My parents used to take me into the city to enjoy nice meals, to see Broadway shows and visit museums. As a teenager my friends used to take me into the city to smoke cigarettes, to see kung fu movies and visit pinball arcades. Now as an adult, I tend to find myself dancing between the raindrops of both worlds.

 

 

When I was in high school, I had a humanities teacher named Miss Crivelli (aka “Ma” Crivelli). She was tough as nails, but inspiring. She taught us about paintings and music and architecture, but more importantly she taught us how to appreciate what we were looking at. And she told the story in a way I never heard before. I was hooked.

 

 

The house I grew up in had a print on the wall of a fox hunt with a group of people riding horses and jumping over fences. I was fascinated by it. There were a hundred stories in that image. Over the years, I must have made up thousands.

 

 

I want each of my photos to tell a thousand stories as well, even if it means I have to lay in the street to find the shot. There have been many times when people have come up to me as I lay in the gutter asking if I was okay. To me, that is an inspiring outlook for both humanity and this city.

 

 

In 1977, my parents gave me a Kodak Pocket Instamatic for my birthday. It came with a cartridge for the film and two flash bulbs that rotated on top. I was in love with photography, and I’ve pretty much had a camera in my hand ever since.

 

 

When I first started taking pictures of the city, I was mostly trying to capture its lines and how those lines converted into shadows and light. At the time, I had a small (and I’d say somewhat disturbed) following of people.

 

 

On September 13, 2013 things changed when I was unfortunately attacked in Union Square. I was knocked unconscious and had one of my ribs cracked in half. It took me two months to be able to walk upright. But it was within that time that I started to look at the city in a completely different way. Mostly it was because I was hunched over and staring into the street all day. I began to see the people and the events that take place in the city in a different light and in the end, a different medium—reflection.

 

 

All of my photos incorporate some aspect of reflection. Many of them are in fact pure reflections (mostly through water). The writing associated with the photo also contains an element of reflection.

 

 

The past, the present and the future…. the pain, the joy and the celebration… the good, the bad and the ugly… the beauty that once was, still is and will always be…  can all be seen in reflections. I am hoping my photos will help tell those stories, not only in the audience’s eyes but in their minds, and in their heart. And perhaps, in a small way, inspire them to see life in a more enjoyable way.

 

Matthew Cortellesi invites you to follow on Instagram.

 

 

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