Marco Sipriaso – Portrait of a Photographer

Matt Payne

Matt Payne is a landscape photographer and mountain climber from Durango, Colorado. He’s the host of the weekly landscape photography podcast, “F-Stop Collaborate and Listen,” co-founder of the Nature First Photography Alliance, and co-founder of the Natural Landscape Photography Awards. He lives with his wife, Angela, his son Quinn, and his four cats, Juju, Chara, Arrow, and Vestal.

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For the seventh iteration of this column, I decided to focus on the artwork of a photographer that recently popped onto my radar as a guest suggestion for my podcast. While Marco and I had already had many interactions on Instagram, I had foolishly not taken the time to look at his body of wonderful artwork. Upon deeper examination, I came to fully appreciate what Marco was trying to communicate through his landscape photography – the idea that if we take the time to slow down in nature and appreciate the small details right under our noses that we can more fully appreciate a place and find a deep connection to it. This connection then facilitates wonder, curiosity, and can instil peace within us to help us recharge our batteries.

For some photographers, discovering these powerful moments in nature comes quite naturally and immediately. For others, including myself, it can take many years and involves countless experiences of feeling let down by preconceived expectations of what the final photographs from a trip should look like. What I admire about Marco’s work is that it is a fresh reminder that expectations can pigeon-hole us as artists to only look for what we had pre-envisioned, whereas an approach like Marco’s can lead to discovering a whole new world of photography that can enrich us and occupy us for a lifetime. Additionally, this approach to landscape photography yields more unique imagery that has the potential to give way to more meaningful and personally expressive artwork.