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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.
As I get older and the longer I create landscape and nature photographs, the more I yearn for my artwork to be about something more than just a beautiful view. Don’t get me wrong, I still think there’s tremendous value in conveying the natural beauty of Earth through our photographs, and this approach can certainly fulfil many photographers’ hopes and desires; however, there is something very compelling for me to aspire for my photographs to do more, to be more, to accomplish more. This has become especially true in our modern era of climate change, pervasive racism, gender inequality, and wealth inequality. These are all problems our societies face and are areas where art and photography can play a role in bringing these issues into the forefront of our collective consciousness.