News: I’m a CFEVA 2022 Visual Artist Fellowship Finalist

For anyone who hasn’t signed up for my mailing list, it’s (belated and exciting) news time! I maintain a fine art practice in addition to my commercial photography studio, and I was chosen to take part as a finalist in the 2022 Visual Artist Fellowship of CFEVA, the Center for Emerging Visual Artists, an arts organization in Philadelphia. Using the support of the organization, I’ve continued work on The Waste Stream and begun research on a new project that I’ll (hopefully) be able to share soon. To avoid giving too much away – because I’m still researching and things could change – the new work is highly experimental in nature, and will exist at the intersection of geophysics and art.

I’ve posted here before about The Waste Stream, a series of pinhole photographs created at former industrial waste sites using lenses constructed on site with pieces of consumer waste found at each particular location. This pinhole photography process results in the blurring of the scene, creating a visual layer for the viewer to consider and draws attention to the treatment of the land as an expendable commodity. All of the waste sites I’ve chosen to photograph are ones that have been repurposed for residential and recreational use by humans. In each of these places, the impacts and effects of the industrial waste are not apparent on the surface, yet remain pervasive.

The attached piece, ‘Flooding, Martin’s Lake / Welsbach and General Gas Mantle Superfund Site, Gloucester City, NJ’, was made at the Welsbach and General Gas Mantle Superfund Site in Gloucester City, New Jersey. Radioactive waste generated by the manufacturing of gas mantles in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was used as fill during the construction of homes, businesses, and parks throughout Gloucester City and Camden, New Jersey. An EPA sponsored aerial survey in 1981 identified multiple sites with elevated levels of radiation throughout the area including a pool club, athletic fields, and homes. A previous blog post has a more thorough write-up on this site.

-Matt