Tucson, AZ
Wedding Day, 2006
Silver gelatin print toned in tea
Image size: 6 x8 inches
$400 framed
To Purchase Contact 23 Sandy Gallery
www.matthewyatesphotography.com
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A few years back, while cleaning out my very Christian grandparents home, I had the voyeuristic desire to find something hidden in a shoebox, an artifact of the bizarre, a proof of a darker and secret life. Alas, I never found any evidence to support my suspicions, so I decided that not only I wanted to find these hidden treasures: I wanted to create them.
The series “Beautiful Nightmare” is the dark family album that I desire to find hidden in the basement, the dusty archive of mysterious people, the record of events long forgotten – perhaps intentionally. These tableaux are inspired by my waking and dreaming life, my fantasies and fears, the things I’ve seen out of the corner of my eye, the déjà-vues I’ve felt, and the stories I’ve allowed myself to play out.
This series is an ongoing project and has been photographed utilizing a variety of techniques involving various cameras and film of large and medium format. The film I photograph with is like my characters: varied, unusual, and questionable. Type55 is a favorite as inconsistency and imprecision are part of its intrinsic beauty. The negatives, often left to deteriorate with time and the elements, are then printed onto fiber-based paper and tea–toned.
Artist Biography
Matthew Yates lives and works in Tucson, Arizona. Yates earned his degree in photography at the Kansas City Art Institute in 1997. Since then, Yates has exhibited his work internationally. He was selected for the 2005 Arizona Biennial, guest-curated by Siri Engberg of the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.
All images and text copyright the artist. All rights reserved.
