Matt Black: The Documentary Commitment
For this project, I worked with Magnum Photos on the development and production of their latest online masterclass series with Matt Black. Starting with in-depth research of the artist’s practice, we built a curriculum of 21 lessons spanning more than five hours.
The course is aimed at those interested in using the medium of photography to highlight issues, stories, people and places that are important to them. Across each lesson, Black speaks on his pathway into photography, teaches some of his key guiding principles to making meaningful work, often on difficult subjects, and shares insights on how he has developed significant projects focused on themes of geography, inequality, and the environment in his native region of the Central Valley in California, as well as further afield.
As featured by NOWNESS
As part of the course, the viewer is guided through the making of Black’s latest project American Geography: the result of a six year, 100,000 mile mission across 46 states to create a project that explores poverty not as isolated incidents but as a nationwide issue, deeply woven into American life. We follow Black as he translates the vast amount of material gathered in the making of the project into a photobook and exhibition, with guest contributors designer Yolanda Cuomo and curator Ingo Taubhorn.
Credits
Curriculum development & in-house production: Michael Sargeant & Verity Roberts
Director: Joppe Rog
Production Co: All Good Studios
Editor: Anna Zavialova
DOP: Blake Myers
Sound: Todd Macmillan
Music: Thomas Williams