JONATHAN CHERRY: Do you think being born and raised in the US has had a significant impact on the way you make images?

MATT THOMAS: I know it has. I am just not sure exactly how.

Aesthetically, ideologically, I was shaped mostly by where I went to school for photography - Rochester Institute of Technology (especially on technique) (and Elaine O’Neil’s sage advice “Shoot what you know”) and Glasgow School of Art. But then you have to take into account all of those other things that make me who I am - Being born and raised in Elizabeth, NJ by a big supportive family, having a grandfather who was a serious amateur photographer, supportive parents who worked for everything they got. All of this has shaped me personally which has in turn shaped my artwork. Then there is being an American abroad. This shapes the way I work currently in that I am always acutely aware that I am culturally different from others around me at all times. Not so much an embodiment of America, just a capsule of American experiences.

JC: What has inspired you this last week and why?

MT: I’m easily inspired. Ever since I was born I would stare into space with my mouth wide open. I watch things and deconstruct it in my head. I like to think that everything I come in contact with, any event that goes on during the day could possibly be inspirational. Not in a motivational speaker sense. I’m a very visual person. And I am also easily entertained and amazed. Here is a shortlist of things that have inspired me. I tried to focus on the main ones.

Snow- it has been in Oslo since before Christmas. The coldest winter in 75 years I am told. I try to turn it into something positive, I like looking at fresh snow. I like photographing it too. Snow drift shapes, things covered in snow that probably aren’t mean’t to be, layers of snow. ETC. Robert Frank’s ‘Seven Stories’- It made me want to take polaroids again. So I have been taking mostly polaroids all week. The sleds at Vikingskiphuset - it boggles my mind that people were able to craft such beautiful things from wood that long ago, and that they survived Norway’s incredibly shitty weather. Oslo’s Opera House - It is my favorite building. I don’t appreciate architecture anywhere as much as I do in this place. The lines, the light, the way the architects played with space. It is stunning. My wife - Ina is a photographer too, and sometimes I just take pictures of things that remind me of her, she is so damn beautiful and smart. We need to collaborate more, which I think will happen when we move into our own place. My Mom- just left Norway. She was visiting me this last week and she was reminding me of everything that is different in this country from back home in New Jersey. It was refreshing. Beer - I am a huge beer geek. I started making my own homebrews recently. When I drink good beer it inspires me. I get very intense about tasting, smelling, the whole experience. The last one I had was Nøgne Ø imperial brown. Watching the Olympics in Norwegian - Watching the skiing. And my father-in-law watching skiing. I never understood winter sports (besides hockey) but he is so passionate about it like so many other Norwegians are. I’m starting to understand why. Especially Ski shooting. Works in the National Gallery in Oslo, specifically Munch.

JC: What was the last photography book you looked through?

MT: ‘Seven Stories’ by Robert Frank. It is a pleasure to hold. to feel. It is like you are looking through one of his sketchbooks. I love the intimacy of it. Especially the handwriting. Most of all I like the print quality. I like to think that in each one of these seven books there is some sort of narrative that he is totally aware of. But as the viewer going from image to image we are unaware of his intentions, just the fact that these people, these settings are significant to him. Maybe there is an elaborate story. But we have to make it up. It’s what I love about this work.

JC: What did you learn from making the body of work ‘American Landscapes’?

MT: Random photographs aren’t always random photographs.

Observations/photographs can be tied together in ways you don’t always forsee when you are releasing the shutter.

I thought I was just shooting around. I was just shooting around. This work was edited down from 4-5 years of photography. I wanted to put some of these pictures together on my website when I was building it, but I didn’t know how to fit them together. Then I realized what they had in common was they were all observations of what was around me. My environment. And I realized how stark in contrast these environments are. Then I realized this is America. The stark contrasts. The poor, the rich, the strong religious overtones. The consumption. The nature. All of those damn reality signs with freshly cut trees behind them. In some ways this series is my least favorite because it wasn’t something that I had fully thought out as a project. It was just thrown up on the web as a sort of exercise in editing. At times I wish I could go back and just photograph all these themes thoroughly. Other times I am content with the work.

JC: What is your Norway project all about and how did it start?

MT: I think I am still figuring out what it’s about. When I moved to Oslo last April I had this idea that I would document my transition of moving to Norway photographically. But how do you document a transition like that? New country, new language, new culture, it doesn’t fit so neatly in a frame. So I’ve been keeping the idea of transition in the back of my mind and just photographing the things that strike me as slightly absurdly Norwegian, or just objects that interest me, or the people that I have grown close to, or landscapes that I wouldn’t be able to find in the tri-state area. Just finding things outside my own American experience. I always wanted the end product to be a book. But I have so many rolls of film to get developed that I have no idea what direction this project will go in. I want the work to grow organically like my transition. I don’t know if such a thing can be visible in the photographs but I think it is important to me even if no one else can see it.

JC: What is the above (first) image about?

MT: It was an observation.

A bright orange shape struck me while I was walking a trail on Hovedøya, an island near Oslo’s city center. I walked closer to it and noticed that it was a Dolce&Gabbana towel. And then decided to photograph it. I think the absurdity of the scene is what I was trying to focus on. The fact that at this beach, there was this designer towel, on a tree branch where anyone could takel it. Such things are foreign to me and I find it interesting. Norway is such a rich country. you could see it on a towel, on a beach, on a sunny day. Aesthetically, I think somewhere in the back of my mind was some post-impressionist scene painting. Maybe ‘Dance of Life’ or something. There might have also been something calling me with the shadow on the trunk and that orange quadrilateral. Quadrilateral is a really good word.

JC: Are you excited about 2010 - if so why?

MT: It feels like the future. Twenty-Ten. I am excited to live in the future. I am excited to see what this year will bring technologically. More so than any other year since the year 2000. For centuries people probably wondered what the world would be like in the year 2000. Or 2010. And now we are here. It will probably be a let down. Wars will continue, there will still be widespread starvation and disease in parts of the world, greed and profiteering will still be the driving force of progress. But for me, I think it will be a good year. I’m moving, starting a new job, being featured on this website, what more can one ask in the start of a new year?

JC: What is your favourite colour?

MT: Recently, I started getting into color combinations. Saffron yellow and pale blue, or washed out red and pale blue. But if I had to choose it would probably have to be something light turquoise. Like the blue version of mint green. That’s the best.