Liverpool's famously impartial and trusted blog, sevenstreets.com, has finally launched in print.
Editor David Lloyd was kind enough to ask me to answer a few questions for a mini feature in issue one.
David Lloyd: Tell us about your new studio/gallery.
Matt Ford: I have been in the Studio for about seven years and it has been used primarily as a working photo studio. I've shot everything from fashion editorial for internationally recognised fashion brands like Philip Armstrong and Benna Jewellery to cultural festival artwork and most of my fine art work originated here.
(Philip Armstrong AW13. Shot by Matt.)
After having four exhibitions over the past 2/3 years, in other locations around Liverpool, (one fashion and three art) I felt it was time to have a permanent home for my art work to be seen, so I made it into a showroom of sorts. I have also created a website to provide a digital residency for my work and now other Artists from the local scene and as far as Los Angeles.
DL: You've moved away from pure fashion? Why?
MF: I still get a lot of commissions, but mainly directly from fashion designers, which I love. It's one of the most fast paced creative industries out there, art directing a shoot with designer feels like a creative collaboration. Just because of the commercial influence it doesn't stop them being artists in their own right.
However, I started to evolve creatively because I felt like there was more that I wanted to say with my work. I wanted to know what it felt like to make something, communicate something, that stood alone from anyone else's direction. It's quite a daunting feeling putting your naked ideas out there to be judged, but it's something you just have to do.
DL: Tell us about your recent work?
The beauty of the body. Silk screen print on wood By Matt Ford. (Shop print).
MF: One of the things I felt like I had to do was somehow move away from mass reproduced digital printed copies of my work and make something resolution, colour, size specific, that I had complete control over. So I got back to basics and started to screen print my own photographs. It's the first time in years I've felt like created something truly original. Alot of the work I make now is one off and you have to see it in the flesh to absorb its impact.
Take for example my latest fine art collection, The Death Love Sex Self Collection. I tried to pour everything I had into it. Even though the underline theme of the series was drawn from ideas about what place religion has in modern society, specifically Buddhism, the process of making it went on to be so much more. Technically I discovered how to use colour, texture, composition and reference in a totally new way. My new work appears stripped down and simple, but emotionally it's the deepest work I've ever done.
My latest commercial work involves a new poster for the Vogue Ball. The image involves hyper real digital manipulation and a vogueing girl with six arms like a Hindu god and she has snakes for hair. Through this I'm fascinated by Pop surrealism at the moment. I'd like to take this fascination further with another commission I'm working on from Homotopia.
DL: What's coming up in the space.
(Preview Exhibition Dates Extended).
MF: With the launch of my website in April, I've been using the space to showcase the artists featured on the site. We had a 'Preview Exhibition' for Liverpool art month where we sold work from local artists including showing work from an amazing Los Angeles based photographer seen for the first time in the UK. His work was all received and we sold every piece.
Image Gregory Goldin. (Shop Prints).
Image Lu Lowe. (Shop Prints).
The studio is also used by myself and a hand full of local photographers, in the past few months we've had the likes of Mark McNulty shooting music promo shots and Fashion designer Kirsty Doyle working in the space on her own stuff. We even have the space open most evenings to theatre goers from The Liverpool Actors Studio. It's a relatively small space but we see a lot of versatility of culture pass through. It's a fascinating place to be.
DL: How do you go about the curation process?
MF: The current curatorial process for Matt Ford Studio is about using the gallery/studio and website to show artwork from people who are inspiring and make me, as an artist, work harder. We're in a gradual process of bringing together a group of artists, from around the world, that I want to work with again and again on future exhibitions and projects.
DL: What's inspiring you these days?
MF: Vintage movie posters! I'm about to start planning the next poster artwork for The Shiny New Fringe Festival, so I've already started looking at classic movies posters for inspiration.
DL: Is it possible to make a good living as a photographer in Liverpool?
MF: ...it's what I always say, if you work hard, you can achieve anything.
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