Matthew Brandt: Lakes and Reservoirs

Matthew Brandt creates hisworkusing physical elements from thedepictedsubject. Inspiredby landscape photography of the American Westand alternative photograph processes developed duringphotography's infancy in the mid-nineteenth century, the artist revives traditional photographic techniques through various productionprocesses. Whether soaking prints in water from thedepictedlake,printing on paper made from the subject tree or even using apigment created from the subject, Brandt blurs the line between the photograph and the photographed. For his series Lakes and Reservoirs, Brandt photographs lakes and reservoirs in the western United States, and then submerges each resulting C-Print in water collectedfrom the subject of the photograph. Prints are soaked for days or weeks or even months,and this process impacts the layers of color that comprise the image. Brandt removes theprint once it reaches its desired look, which can range from mostly representational tocompletely abstract. The Lakes and Reservoirs series considers the current condition notonly of our lakes and reservoirs, but also of traditional color photography.
In December 2011, Forbes named Matthew Brandt (born 1982) one of tomorrow's "brightest stars," in the article "30 Under 30: Art & Design." Brandt's work is included in the collections ofThe Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Brooklyn Museum, New York; Cincinnati Art Museum; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Royal Danish Library, National Museum of Photography, Copenhagen; and the Columbus Museum of Art, among others.Brandtwas born in California and received his BFA from Cooper Union and his MFA from UCLA. The artist currently lives and works in Los Angeles.