With the release of his seventh book “Born to Dance,” portrait photographer Jordan Matter came to North Central College on Oct. 29 for Anderson’s Bookshop. Matter’s pictures, as well as many of his books, are focused on dancers.
Many young dancers gathered among the book stacks for the chance to meet and listen to Matter. The audience listened to him talk about his career and the inspirations that have carried him through the journey. He also presented a slideshow which contained some of his photos. Many girls in the audience dressed in their dancewear hoping for the chance to have their picture taken by such a well-known photographer.
His first book, “Dancers Among Us,” was inspired by his son. Matter saw how passionate he was about so many things in his young life. This prompted him to photograph dancers for the first time in an attempt to “recreate that passion for everyday life,” said Matter. He hoped that dancers could “exaggerate the every day.”
Matter wasn’t the only one in his family who ended up in the limelight. His father was a film director, his mother modeled, his grandmother painted and his grandfather, Herbert Matter, was also a well-known photographer. Matter took a particular interest in his grandfather’s work in the dark room.
He decided to follow the same path by enrolling in a photography course on black and white printing. For an assignment, Matter took a close-up picture of an older woman. This was one of the first portraits he ever took that had great meaning to him.
“It was magic,” said Matter. “The print came up and I saw the image materialize in front of me…that was the moment I realized I wanted to become a photographer.”
While doing a photo shoot in 2017 with dancer Anna McNulty, Matter decided to challenge his photography skills. He chose to do a timed photo shoot, giving himself only five minutes to get as many great shots as he could.
After that, he continued to do other timed challenges, with 24 hours being the longest. He also broke a world record for the longest photo shoot to ever take place. Even though he takes pictures about six days a week, he still struggles with his work sometimes.
“People get blocked because they think too much. You get in your head and you start doubting yourself,” said Matter. He feels that being rushed can actually be helpful with creativity. “You find that there is a lot of creativity that you don’t know is there because your thinking too much.”
In an attempt to top the 24-hour challenge, Matter will be creating a series where he visits 50 states in 50 days. This project will take place in the summer of 2019 with his family in an RV and will broadcast every day for two hours.
