Matthew Rainwaters - Shoot Pictures Not People

What do you feel photographing a woman who stabbed her abusive husband 193 times? How do you get the right light-exposure for a man behind bullet-proof glass and under glaring prison lights? Matthew Rainwaters knows. The self-titled landscape photographer initially caught our attention with his stirring OFFENDER series, which was commissioned by Esquire UK and Texas Monthly. While taking a look at his website and blog, we realized how many more amazing portraits this man has in his portfolio. Now it’s time to share with you the fantastic omnium gatherum of Matthew Rainwaters - his photographs, his stories and his thoughts.

Hi Matt, how are you?

I’m doing good, I was looking forward to skating a little bit this morning, but it started to rain as soon as I got to the ramp, so I’m at the studio a little earlier than I expected… good though.

Do you remember your first picture?

I remember getting my first camera in the fifth grade, some kind of Kodak point and shoot… I remember wanting to be ‘artistic’ with it, which really just meant I took a lot of close-ups of grass. So I guess ‘photos of lawns’ was my first series. Haven’t thought about that in a long time.

Do you prefer to take pictures of people or landscapes?

This is sort of a tough one… I consider myself a landscape photographer, though you would never be able to tell it from looking at my website these days. But ask anyone I went to school with and they will tell you I was the B&W landscape guy that hung out in the darkroom for 12 hours a day. I love camping with a core group of friends and hiking to really strange and obscure locations to get the best shots in the early light. There isn’t really much else like that feeling. Photographing people was a natural evolution in my career as an editorial photographer. I’m really fortunate that I’ve found a way to do it and be passionate about it. I love meeting new people and trying to find something honest in their character for the camera to see. It’s a special challenge that I’ve grown to love.

What do you aim for with your photography – what’s the incentive?

I want to tell honest stories with my photographs. When I was trying to exhibit my work in galleries a few years ago I asked Keith Carter what he thought was the most important thing a photographer can do. He told me to always be honest with my work, it was a brief conversation over the phone probably seven years ago but that has stayed with me ever since. So, staying true to the subject is the goal.

Tell me about the making of the “Beardfolio” – it’s amazing, we couldn’t help but notice quite a few German names in there…

An art director friend of mine had grown out a beard for a local contest and was talking about shaving it off afterward. I convinced him that he needed to keep growing it and try to compete at the world beard and mustache championships that were scheduled in Alaska about two years from then. He kept growing it and we kept talking about it but it always seemed like it was just going to be something we talked about. One day we were having a beer about two months from the competition and decided that yes, we definitely were going to do it. So we booked our tickets, he competed, I took pictures of the contestants and the rest is history. And yes there were a lot of Germans with very impressive facial hair. I think it’s a social sport over there.

How do you find your models?

I don’t think that I shoot models really in the typical sense of casting someone for a part. I do a lot of editorial work for magazines as opposed to advertising work. I’m normally photographing things to help tell a story that already exists. In that regard, my photo editors fill me in on the story the writer is covering and I figure out what will work best with those themes.

Where do you think photography is going? There are so many people out there taking really great pictures but at times it just seems like there is too much to even keep track of – everybody can call themselves a photographer. Do you think that this is a trend that will be ‘getting worse’?

This is a really, really interesting question. I taught high school photography in LA for three years after I graduated from photo school. My students had an unbelievable learning curve that I can attribute to digital photography. Being able to see your mistakes instantly is a remarkable tool. Digital cameras make photography so much more accessible. When I was a teenager I had to save money for film and processing and wait about a week to get my film back. It’s not like that now; I can take a picture, upload it and start editing it in a matter of minutes. Photography is a wonderfully fun pastime and sites like flickr make it easy for anyone to call themselves a photographer and that’s great, I love that identity personally. The only thing that bothers me is gimmicky Photoshop techniques that dress up already bad photos.

I see on your blog that you put mind-blowing sites like notcot.org and itsnicethat.com as your inspiration. I can totally relate to that, but tell us why you like those blogs? What else inspires you?

I think it’s important to find inspiration outside of your own medium. I love photography but I need to look at really great design every once in a while also. Sites like notcot.org are great for that, because they cover the entire creative community.

How do you feel about blogging yourself?

Blogging is great. It’s a wonderful way for me to keep in touch with the creative communities I live in and work with and the best way I know of to discover new work.

What would you do if you lost your sight?

I would learn brail.

Have you been grown up always wanting to be a photographer?

Basically, I bought a video camera when I was 14 to make skate videos with my friends. That was a big deal in 1993, today video cameras are in every phone and editing software comes standard on every computer. I was the go-to guy if you needed skate footage shot or pictures of your band. Back then I wanted to be a cinematographer but fell in love with still photography sometime when I was 18.

“Shoot pictures, not people” – your impressing offender series was all over the web – was it hard to get inside the prison?

Shoot pictures not people is a slogan my students and I came up with to run in the yearbook for our class, years later it’s part of my identity. Kind of funny. As far as prison access goes, it was all arranged by Esquire and Texas Monthly for the jobs I was doing. The hardest part was photographing Steven Russell through glass. He was such a high flight risk that there was always a thick piece of glass between us. I had to talk to him in a visitor’s booth and give him instructions through a telephone. After that I had the guards lead him through a hallway by an interior window and he stood under a florescent lamp so that I had enough light to expose the pictures. I couldn’t use a single piece of lighting gear that I brought because it would have reflected all over the place. Every shot I had planned out in my head had to be scrapped. That shoot was definitely challenging and an exercise in improvisation.

How did the offender series come to life?

The series came to life when a writer that I’ve worked with, Alex Hannaford, called me to shoot a story he was doing for Esquire UK. It was on Steven Russell a former con man and escape artist. Jim Carrey is playing him in the upcoming movie “I Love You Phillip Morris” and we wanted to get his story before the film comes out. A few weeks later Texas Monthly was doing a feature on Susan Wright, a woman who was convicted of killing her husband after stabbing him 193 times. She recently won a last minute sentencing appeal and new evidence could set her free. So Skip Hollandsworth, the writer, and I went out to get the story. So after shooting those two features I had a body of work that I really want to continue, that was the start of the portfolio.

How did you choose the people for that series?

That was already done by the writer; it’s really a matter for the photo editor in charge of the story choosing the photographer that is right for the feature.

The woman’s waiting room seems in fact very sterile, yet calming because of the white - how did you feel being in a prison?

The Susan Wright visit was really sad. The waiting room was small and I was setting up my gear while the interview was going on. I did my best to be quiet and not to distract while that was happening and in the process I heard a lot of her story. She claims that her husband was abusive to her and it wasn’t until he started hurting their child that she acted out against him. One of the saddest things I heard that choked me up was something to the effect of, “Isn’t it strange that I had to come to prison to feel safe?” Overhearing that set the tone for the rest of the shoot.

What’s coming next for you? Are you working on any project?

Alex from Esquire features and I are working on a trip to Guantanamo Bay in the near future.

What would a project be that you would really like to be doing?

Those last two were so great to work on; I would love to keep finding stories like that… significant and timely events about real people.

What can you tell aspiring photographers – any wise or warm words?

Remember to be honest with your work.