Jordan Matter is a modern day dance photographer born on October 6th 1966 in New York. He uses a digital camera to capture dancers, gymnasts and contortionists in unreal poses in normal everyday places. He is the grandson of a known photographer Herbert Matter. He spent a lot of his childhood in a dark room with his grandfather. His father is a film director and mother is a model so photography was definitely included in his life. He wasn’t really interesting in photography though until he saw the exhibit of photstoryojournalist Henri Cartier-Bresson. Matter enjoyed his photography because they displayed a story. Jordan Matter was an actor before photography so he wanted to include his love for the arts into some of his photography so he decided to use dance to show his love for the arts. He takes photographs of dancers doing normal life activities in a artsy way. For example he has photographed a contortionist on a subway sitting in an abnormal way. He thinks that natural photos of everyday things are interesting but throwing an artistic twist makes them better. I think these photos inspire people to be creative and unique. He also has a collection of photos called dancers after dark which is where he takes pictures of naked dancers in the streets of New York in the middle of the night. These photos are quite strange but they do show a natural yet creative ways of photography .

I chose this photographer for a couple of reasons. The biggest reason is because I am a dancer and I enjoy looking at other dancers. Another reason is because his photos are very inspiring and the quality is incredible. Finally I love natural looking photos in every day places I think they are super cool. I could never choose my favourite photo of Jordan Matter’s collection but if I had to choose one that inspires me it would be this one because I love how the focus is on the dancer but you can see the business of the New York streets blurred behind her.