Matt Connors

Artist’s Website

I grew up in Burlingame, California and went to Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, graduating in 1974 with a degree in Theater Arts. It was while living in New York City after graduation that I first picked up a camera, learning how to develop film at home and make prints in the darkroom. I left New York to return to California in the early 80’s, landing a job as a software programmer, a career in which I stayed for the rest of my professional life, working as a programmer, designer, manager and software architect. Along the way photography got lost, other than the usual vacation and special event snapshots. After retiring in 2014, I decided to dive back into photography.

I am a member of ImageMakers in Monterey, CA and a member photographer and volunteer at The Center For Photographic Art in Carmel, CA. I reside in Carmel Valley, CA with my wife Elneda and our two black labs, Mulligan and Norton. Aside from photography, I volunteer with the Monterey Peninsula Regional Park District and Norton and I are a therapy dog team at the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula.

Artist’s Statement

I have a need to create. I have no real talent to draw, or paint, or sculpt, or sing, or play an instrument, or write a poem, or write a work of fiction. I can, however, photograph, and through photography satisfy my need to create. I usually photograph the natural world out of a deep appreciation for it, and because I’d rather be outside in beautiful places than in a studio.

I agree with what Robert Adams said in his wonderful essay “Beauty in Photography” – “successful art rediscovers Beauty for us”. Perhaps it is not in vogue for art to be about beauty, and certainly there are many worthy and worthwhile art projects that express insight into the human condition or what is going on in our world. My hat is off to those artists, yet I do not seek to emulate them. I simply seek to rediscover Beauty. I believe there is a place for Beauty in the world, and that if more of us spent more time feeling the wonder, awe, appreciation and humility one feels when one brushes one’s fingertips against Beauty, we’d live in a better world.