TRUTH

I believe the only way to become better, regardless of the discipline, is to look at your weaknesses and work to improve them while at the same time developing your strengths. I was born in New York, and I started in photography in New York where few people sugar coat the truth. When I was a young photo assistant I asked for opinions of my work and my friends and colleges let me know their views and they were not always nice about it, however it is how I grew as a photographer. If all around you are only telling you that your work is the best thing since sliced bread they are setting you up for failure, in my opinion. I believe, (emphasis on I) that you will learn much more from the hard truth than from someone just trying to say your feelings. I was once told by a famous creative director that I'd never work in the U.S. and that I should move to Europe and make a name and then come back. Those comments gave me the fuel to work harder and are deeply responsible for success (or assumed success) today.

In hard times we all have to dig deep to improve ourselves and discover what really drives us to create images that speak to ourselves as well as to other. The process of creating in an evolution and in my personal evolution as a creator I have created ugly images at times and beautiful images at times, but I'm never perfect and that is the beauty of it all.

I once interviewed a famous dancer who express his frustration with creating a dance piece that was killed by the press saying, "I felt like I wanted to pick up my marbles off the ground and run away", however the bad press pushed him to work harder than if he'd received rave reviews all the time. As an artist we can't expect everyone to see our vision but those that do will hire us over and over again, and when we look back over our career's hopefully we will have captured the essence of our life through the unique beauty of our lens.

Always Dream Big

Matthew Jordan Smith

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