Matthew Shain
Matthew was born and raised in San Francisco's Richmond district although he canvased the entire city as rebellious teenager. At 18 he moved to Boulder, CO to attend the University of Colorado. It was awesome. At CU he majored in creative advertising and had lofty goals of becoming an advertising art diretor. But by the end of his senior year he had grown disenchanted, even disgusted with advertising, claiming that it pandered to peoples' fears and insecurities through the use of clich?? and the lowest common denominators of pop-culture. In the end it was not enough to base his career on. And although his degree reads: BS in Journalism (the major existed within the School of Journalism) he knows deep down that it is really a BS in BS.
After college Matthew travelled, searching for more meaning, substance and direction in his life. He ended up in New York City with a cheap place to live and no job prospects. He evetually found work, although not his life's passion, and kept up his search. Then one day he ran into a old aquaintance who was finishing at NYU. She introduced him to conceptual art and photography. Matthew had been taking pictures casually for a couple of years, but had never known the true power and meaning that a picture could carry. Almost at once he began devouring books, films and lectures by artists. He loved how art could provide such insightful, personal and beautiful/disturbing reflections of humanity. It should be noted that ever since Matthew was a schoolboy he had been repremanded for staring out the window and not paying more attention to his studies. Well, finally here was art photography, something that not only encouraged taking long looks at the world, but had rewarding potential as well.
Matthew moved back from NYC to SF (only days before 9-11-01!) and got a job bussing tables. When he wasn't working he was taking pictures, printing pictures, taking classes, and just trying to learn the language of photography. Eventually he built up a decent portfolio and body of work and applied to several schools. By January of 2002 Matthew was moving down to Los Angeles to attend the Art Center College of Design as an undergrad photo major. He liked LA alright, but dispised the schools philosophies. It was far too commericial and slick for his interests, focussing more on the surface of an image rather than the meanings it carried. He did gain a great deal of technical skills and a solid if not broad understanding of modern art history and photo history. But the one biggest influence the school had on him was that good pictures a rarely just taken. They are made. So, although the school pushed him to take photography even more seriously, he decided to transfer to another school, the California College of the Arts, or CCA in Oakland, CA.
At CCA Matthew was introduced to teachers and artists that he found completely relevent to his own life. People around him were creating images of significance, whose objectives were to reveal truths and emotions both personal and universal. It took Matthew only two years to complete CCA's photo program, graduating with high distiction in a class of already highly distinctive characters.
Today Matthew works in San Francisco, navigating the commercial and art worlds for profit and fun, respectively, while living at home wiht his parents.