STUTTERHEIM Shot by: Matt Vega

Matt Vega is a photographer and director based in New York – and a New Yorker through and through. With a mother from Brooklyn and a father from the Bronx, Matt had most boroughs covered at an early age. He had an artistic upbringing with both parents being involved in New York's rock music scene in the 80s, and they influenced him to discover his own creativity and the city as a place to explore self-expression. He found photography in high school when he swapped his lunch period for a photography class. Offering a certain calmness and a break from the pressures of high school life, the dark room became a safe haven with its silence, the smell of the stop bath and the caring process that is developing film. At the same time, Matt devoured magazines like Dazed & Confused and Another, with editorials where “every face, pose, and garment seemed charged with narrative possibility.” This early exposure to the intersection of image and storytelling laid the foundation for Matt’s love of photography and film, which he rediscovered after a detour in the music industry and advertising. He picked up the camera again, desperate for a creative outlet that advertising couldn’t offer, and spent nights and weekends shooting musician friends and studio portraits, commissions which gradually evolved into video work and a career as a director. 

“Looking back, it was this convergence of all these ideas: music, fashion, narrative and that early darkroom work, that inevitably led me here.”