Matt Barnes
An interview with photographer Matt Barnes
Matt Barnes' photos are slick. Whether shooting for Durex, Snoop Dogg or Playboy, his work exudes confidence. Oh, and sex. Matt's images are drenched in it. He doesn't solely attract clients known for sex appeal though - he's photographed David Cronenberg, Justice and, um, Ikea.
Quite a few of your nude photos include a photographer in the shots - why so?
I try and tell stories in my photographs, and incorporating an extra character, in this case a photographer, just allows the story to come through better. The model-photographer relationship is a pretty sexually-charged one, so I like recreating that. It's like a story inside a story.
I'm in several of my own shots, but I like using the people around me, who aren't necessarily models, to play out my own fantasies. In both my films and photographs I tend to sway toward using real people, rather than models. I think you can get more emotion out of someone who doesn't do this on an everyday basis.
Over here, the government recently passed a law banning certain types of extreme fetish photography. How do you feel about obscenity and censorship laws?
I honestly don't pay much attention to any of that. I do my own thing and let people think what they want. Personally, I'm drawn to things that are a little bit lewd - the seedy underbelly. If you can find a balance of coolness, style and sexuality, people seem to forget that you are shooting a chick spread-eagled, and call it art!
What's up with the nude gorilla dude here?
The self-portrait? The gorilla-man is another photographer from Toronto, who wanted to model for me, but was uncomfortable having his face shown. The gorilla mask was just me being cheeky. I shot him with two girls, creating a whole scenario around him sharing his banana with them, but in a film-noir style. The best photograph of the day was this one of him and I - behind the scenes.
We shot in this seedy Niagara Falls sex-motel, decked out in Scarlett O'Hara gear from Gone With The Wind. One of the models was a Russian girl, whose dream it was to be Scarlett, back when she was a child in the Soviet Union. She was over the moon, as even though she was performing fellatio on a banana, this was her as close to her dream as she was ever going to get.
When you look at your subjects, you "only see a skewed version of yourself". What parts do you recognise the most?
I'm able to get away with a lot when I'm "playing photographer". I get to recreate personal experiences, or ones I wish I had, while maintaining a safe distance. I guess I'm most drawn to the humour and sexuality in people, as those are two big parts of me. I take those bits of me and sort of transport everything back to a different time. I like to shoot things with genuine looks from the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Everything from props to wardrobe is period-specific too. I love Tiki culture, and I seem to be an equal balance of a Mod and a Rocker. I'm Buddy Holly on a Lambretta on his way to get a Mai-Tai!
See more of Matt's work at his website thatsthespot.com
