Matt WILSON

Cette route mène surement quelque part, peut-être

Cette route mêne surement quelque part, peut-être is the new project by Matt Wilson, created during his residency in Normandy for the 2023 edition of the Planches Contacts festival in Deauville.

Setting out to discover Normandy with no specific destination and letting himself be guided by instinct, Matt Wilson traveled through the five departments of the region.

From the spectacular coastline of Seine-Maritime to the Cotentin Peninsula, passing through the most remote rural landscapes of Calvados, Eure, and Orne, this project focuses on how these various itineraries resonate with the artist and inspire works that explore visual impact as a lyrical theme.

A true ode to the Impressionist principle of capturing the effects of light and atmosphere, each road, each place, each site seems imbued with a personal story where shadows and reflections of the present succeed one another, offering us a singular vision through his eyes.

His bold, dreamlike compositions play surprisingly with light. His specific use of color evokes the Impressionist painters and transports us into a world where photography becomes an open window onto the poetry and splendor of Normandy, revealing the very essence of the region.

Stateside

Stateside is an outsider’s testimony on the American Dream. As a Briton traveling through the American landscape, Matt Wilson felt that the American Dream has decidedly vanished since the 1970s.

His particularly sensitive and humanistic vision of a forever-lost America results in ineffable images of the various regions he explores, guided by his moods and encounters.

Photographed by Matt Wilson, each location—whether a road, an improbable spot, or a residence—seems imbued with a personal story. The scenes he captures evoke the atmosphere of American films from the 1960s.

Works

Exhibitions

2024

Cette route mêne surement quelque part, peut-être...

Galerie SIT DOWN, Paris

04.10.2024 – 18.01.2025

2023

Stateside (Duo Show)

The Photography Show presented by AIPAD

31.03.2023 – 02.04.2023

Biography

Matt Wilson is a British photographer, born in 1969 in Tonbridge (Kent, United Kingdom). In 1988, he moved to New York, where he discovered his passion for photography. A self-taught artist, he learned analog techniques through various experiences as an assistant to photographers and in darkrooms. Gradually, he began exhibiting his prints in New York, where he was noticed by Christine Ollier, then director of the gallery Les Filles du Calvaire in Paris, which opened the door to international recognition.

Matt Wilson’s work is shaped by his travels and encounters around the world (Ukraine, Cuba, United States, Lithuania…). His landscapes are the result of meticulous composition and light treatment, reminiscent of master painters such as John Constable or Jacob van Ruisdael, and evoke true travel diaries.

In 2015, he began a residency in Lithuania that led to the Hinterland series, portraying local rural landscapes and the last inhabitants of villages on the verge of disappearing, through a poetic and socially engaged vision tinged with mystery. In Stateside, a project he has been pursuing since 2011, Matt Wilson focuses on capturing forgotten American landscapes as symbols of the fading American Dream.

He was a finalist for the International Colour Award in 2007, American Photography 22 in 2006, and the Leica Oscar Barnack Award in 2015.

©️Yohan Bonnet

Press

2023

Iris Mandret, “Le carnet de voyage de Matt Wilson”, Blind Magazine, 7 février 2023

Costanza Spina, “Matt Wilson : l’expérience du paysage”, Fisheye Magazine, Janvier 2023

Christine Ollier, “Matt Wilson vient clôturer l’espace Leica Store Paris”, 9lives Magazine, 18 janvier 2023

2022

Frédérique Chapuis, “Nature Mourante”, Télérama sortir, 22 janvier 2022

2021

Quentin Didier, “Des portraits photographiques de la Lituanie rurale”, L’Officiel Galeries & Musées, 14 décembre 2021

Dominique Georges Bègue, “Derniers aperçus d’un monde oublié, la Lituanie de Matt Wilson”, Réponses Photo, 13 décembre 2021

2015

British Journal of Photography, “Looking for America”, Octobre 2015