Mat Szwajkos

ARTIST STATEMENT:

Celebrity photography has lost the bond between subject and photographer. Too often these days, images are created behind a velvet rope or a publicist's arm. The photos in this book are intimate moments between me and my subjects at concerts, fashion shows, press conferences, parties and private events. Some I met moments before I took their photo and some I have worked with for years. I have built enough trust with each of my subjects to put a lens six to eight inches from their faces. Each image forms a connection to me, with the camera and the viewer.

BIO:

Mat Szwajkos majored in Photography at Pratt Institute and received his BFA in Photography in 2001. From 2000 to 2002 he was the assistant photographer at the architectural firm Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates in Philadelphia. In the fall of 2002 he returned to New York to pursue commercial and advertising photography. He has exhibited and published around the world in newspapers and magazines.