Matt Stevens' photostream  

I try to capture the normal world in an unusual way. Even the most humble objects can have spectacular geometry, or look altogether new in unusual light. Other times, the real world is so beautiful without human art that I seek merely to do it justice. In portraiture, I value (like so many photographers) the unguarded moments. Those hold the reasons that you love, like or at least are compelled by the people you photograph.

As you'd expect, those aims have led me to an in-camera philosophy. What you see is what was there. Generally, I confine my Photoshopping to cropping, the salvaging of bad exposures, and the rectification of inaccurately-captured color temperatures.

My interests range widely, simply because there's something interesting in everyone and everything. Over the years, I've learned to slow down and listen to folks. The best conversations come at the times you least expect them. They're what make you rich.

As you might expect, my mind is the kind which sops up all kinds of useless knowledge. Before we all scattered throughout North America, I was part of a crack team of trivial people that haunted St. Louis trivia meets. Ladies and gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the technology. A dear friend notes that I have wonderful memory of stuff I learned in high school biology, even if I can't seem to retain today's grocery list.

In music, just about anything does it for me except gangsta rap and hair bands. I've found a blues/Southern rock band out of Huntsville, Alabama named MojoGoon that I've been talking up. There's St. Louis' funk/jam Naked Groove. And, for covers of today's pop hits, no one does it quite like Guildo Horn and Richard Cheese. And I have to admit that a while back, among 1.8 million Flickr users, I was one of only two people who admitted to liking Jan Hammer. The ratio's slightly better now. Slightly.

If you're interested, check out the Flickr groups that I moderate:

Pimpmobiles: Good cars gone horribly wrong.
Catholikish: The kind of crass, uniquely Catholic religious art that makes us Catholics laugh...and everyone else cringe.
Sunburns: Well, uh...sunburns.

If you'd like to learn more about me--which surely means that you have too much time on your hands--you're welcome to check out my personal site. I haven't had a chance to update it in a while, but changes are a-brewing....

The 1,400 publicly-available images are the tip of a 5,600-photo iceberg. Most of my photos depict my family and friends, and are of interest only to them. If you fit into either category and haven't been granted access yet, grab a free Flickr account and shoot me a Flickr Mail note.