Photographer Spotlight: Matthew Mawson

Matt Mawson’s introduction to photography began while assisting many London fashion and still life photographers at Holborn Studios. Eventually he left the artificial lighting of a studio and began contributing to a number of European press agencies that focused on covering many world conflicts.

After numerous assignments and having experienced two creative approaches in the industry, he’s managed to really establish a distinctive photographic style that’s excels both in terrific lighting and composition. He’s stream on Flickr is one to be looked at for daily inspiration.

How would you define your photographic style?

My pictures, I can say, are all about capturing a “moment” within a strong graphic composition. Most of my recent assignments have been through design agencies and designers like a good graphic composition so the image sits comfortably on the page or across two pages.

I like to divide my pictures into thirds using lines or anything that suggests a line. I find that pleasing and I think now I usually include those divisions intuitively in many instances.

However, I work quickly because if you think too much about something it’s gone and then the moment is gone. And when I work that way often I capture lucky accidents, someone walking into the frame for instance and that’s what can make a picture. Serendipitous, I suppose you could say.

What does your camera equipment consist of?

Up until a year ago I used to drag around a Hasselblad 503CWD with the large 16mp sensor and winder, a spare 503CWD with 16 mp sensor and 5 lenses - 40mm, 50mm, 100mm, 150 and 200mm. The big fat light gathering sensors on those digital backs make for beautiful images that ‘snap’ with quality.

However I did a 10 day shoot on the streets of Shanghai and Beijing using the Hasselblads and that was enough. I appreciated the great image quality but it was so damn noisy and heavy working in the street and stopping to change the large lenses, so now I use a Canon 5D MK2 and a back-up Canon 5D and two lenses – 24-105 f4 and a 70-200 f2.8 L IS USM.

The image quality at a pixel level is not as good but for what I do they are perfect. I use Quantum Q Flashes for the Weegee affect and its wide even light and keep a small Canon flash 270EX on the cameras at all times.

I also have a Canon G10 but never use it as the quality is not good enough for commercial ad and design work. I still have all my film cameras – Canon EF, New F-1, AE1, 2 T90s and a Leica M6 and lenses and Hasselblad film backs but who wants them so I hang onto them for sentimental reasons.

I use a Gitzo tripod and carry my gear in a Crumpler backpack. I still use the Hasselblad digitals whenever I shoot some static corporate imagery or cityscapes that are joined together in Photoshop as a panorama.

What is your post-production software of choice?

Everything goes through Lightroom first and if I have to change pixels I obviously use Photoshop CS4. Processing hundreds of 67mp files through Lightroom you need a lot of processing power and I use a MacBook Pro stuffed with as much RAM as it will hold.

I have an older MacBook Pro as a spare and use a 24 inch non Mac screen and on location I take LaCie Rugged 500GB portable hard drives although I am changing to Western Digital 500GB because they are smaller and more reliable.

Are you considering any equipment upgrade in the future?

I will swap my 5D to an update of the Canon 5D MK2 when that becomes available and the new 70-200mm lens that is out in April I think. But that is upwards of £2800! I will also look at the 1Ds Mk 3 update when it comes out.

They say it may have a sensor of more than 30 mp. But I think this megapixel race is crazy as it is the size of the light gathering sensors not the amount that make for great image quality. For instance those I mentioned earlier on the Hasselblad 16mp back.

Share with us your proudest photograph:

I am proud of dozens of my pictures, some taken under extreme circumstances for instance during the genocide in Rwanda and fighting in northern Iraq, others shooting from the hip as it were and getting an image that could never have existed any other way.

But this image taken whilst shooting the Beijing Olympic site works for me. I was standing in amongst the Pampas grass using it to frame the stadium and when I stepped back tourists were watching me use it and decided to try their own version and I got this attractive woman in her shiny red shoes posing strangely in the grass.

On Lightroom I brought back the saturation and increased the blacks and contrast which made the reds stand out. It is a happy picture.

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