BLACK, MATT

About the American Magnum photographer, Matt BLACK (b. 1970, Santa Maria, CA)

Matt BlLACK is a documentary photographer whose work has focused on issues of poverty, migration, and the environment. He grew up in the town of Visalia, in California's agricultural Central Valley. While attending high school, he worked as a photographer at the Tulare Advance-Register, later the Visalia Times-Delta, where he learned the black and white photojournalism style he has used throughout his career. He received a B.A. in Latin American History from San Francisco State University in 1995. In the early 1990s, Matt BLACK made several trips to Latin America, making work that in 1993 gained first prize in the Daily Life category of the World Press Photo Award (1994). For a project about indigenous Mexican migrants in California he received the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Excellence in Journalism, Domestic Photography category, in 2007. In addition to still photography, he has completed several short documentary films. In 2015 he received the W. Eugene Smith Grant and became a nominee member of Magnum Photos, later an associate member and in 2019 a full member.

Photo books by Matt BLACK

'American Geography' (2021)