Photograph by Josephine Fabian
I came to commercial portraiture through documentary.
Since 2010 I have worked primarily as a documentary cinematographer on feature and short films. I got comfy with people from many cultures all around the world and found later that half of the challenge of a portrait shoot is pretty much doing the same thing. Getting comfortable in a short time with the imposition of some weird equipment between you.
Prior to documentary I worked as a narrative cinematographer in short films and music videos where I fell in love with dramatic lighting design. Something I don't get to employ so much in my observational documentary work but get to exercise still in portrait photography. I have also written and now teach my own course in cinematography at my former film school, the VCA.
I have just moved back to Australia after living in Germany for five years where in fact I took my first portraits for my partner at the time who was an actress. We had a crumbling mottled wooden attic in East Berlin, full of abandoned furniture we would chop up and feed to the furnace in winter. Once I was able to make enough space to plant light stands this became my first studio and Berlins grit and winter light has certainly had a big influence on me and now it's something I would like to bring back home to Australia.
While in Germany I also shot for many theatres including Ballhaus Ost, Berliner Festspiele, Bühnen Halle, Dock 11, Jo Fabian Department, Prinzip Gonzo, Staatstheater Cottbus, Theater an der Ruhr & Theater Junge Generation Dresden.
In addition to portraiture I am available to shoot promotional images for theater and other arts and commercial interests.
For my documentary work please see:
cam-matheson.com
And please don’t hesitate to connect:
EMAIL: contact@cam-matheson.com
INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/portraitcam_
LINKEDIN: linkedin.com/in/cammatheson