portraits | kent mathews photography

Bestival

This Series of portraits are part of an ongoing book project with Bestival to be released in 2013. The book is a joint project with London based photographer Dan Smith and was inspired by Richard Avedon’s series, In the American West. We wanted to take the sitters out of the environment of the festival and shoot portraits of their amazing costume creations that now make up the largest fancy dress party in the world with over 50 000 people at a four day event.

Lilly Allen.

Surf Nation

After a weekend away at South West Rocks watching the kids out in the water they reminded me of the boys from Tim Winton’s novel Breath. It seemed to me then that they encapsulated part of a unique Australian life experience that I wanted to explore.
I started the project planning to focus on the younger generation of surfers but it grew wider as I began to realise that now was a pivotal moment in the history of Australian surfing . It is a turning point when the original pioneers like, Scotty Dillon and Geoff Mc Coy are still out in the water alongside the future generations.
The project was shot in conjunction with Coastalwatch over a month long period of travelling up and down the east coast from Sydney to Noosa.I set up my studio on all the famous surf beaches and photographed people as they come out of the water. The series is now available as a coffee table book at : www.momentoshop.com

Bacardi Tour

This was really a side project shot backstage on the Bacardi express tour 2010.
I originally proposed the idea of shooting raw sweaty portraits of the artists straight off stage in my “out of context “ white background style.
As the project evolved I started shooting all the team backstage and the project also turned into a document of what makes a tour happen and who is involved. I tried to represent a person from each of the jobs that go on behind the scenes of a music tour.
This is the final series was exhibited as part of the Bacardi express exhibition at Dr Pongs, Sydney.

Josh Hepinstall. Miami Horror.

10 x 8 Plate Series

This is really side project to the Bestival book project. Inspired by the amazing new plate portrait work exhibited by Sally Mann at the photographer’s gallery, London in summer 2010.
As part of the Bestival book project we had access to some amazing musicians who wouldn’t make the book as they were not in fancy dress, so instead were perfect for a close up 10 x 8 ‘ plate portrait project. This first image of Gill Scott Heron was probably one of the last images ever shot of him. R.I.P Gill Scott, your words and music live on.

Gill Scott Heron.