matt carroll with a camera's photostream  

I'm a photographer living in Somerville, MA. I've been shooting seriously for around seven years and my work is largely documentary in nature, although I do the occasional more commercial gig.

I use a Canon AE-1, a Digital Rebel XT, a Holga, and a fisheye 35mm lomo. I also have two polaroids that I have yet to figure out, and I've been using a medium format camera on loan from my alma matter. I'm kind of over the fisheye lomo - it just wasn't giving me very good results, even for a toy camera.

I don't think i realized it at the time when I started shooting, but part of the reason why I photograph is to grab things before they're gone, and to keep a record of my life. When I first read about Bresson and his "decisive moment", I thought, oh yeah, that's what I've been going for all along, I just hadn't put it in words. It also explains why I've always been attracted to fairly wide lenses, because what I'm interested in is the scene and the story and not neccesarily just the expression on one person's face.

I'm a recent Somerville transplant from Lower Allston, and I'm more than happy to get out of there. It's a fine place if you're still in school or in your first few rock bands, but after a while the luster wears off and it turns into a dark version of a peter pan story, where instead of flying, everyone goes to the same few dive bars all the time. Maybe it's true that Cambridge and Somerville are the punk rock retirement neighborhoods, and the only time I've picked up an instrument recently was when I was trying to learn some Carter Family songs on mandolin.