To me expression is everything. It's my voice of authenticity, my identity, my reason to feel and connect and create. It's been my companion through many years and many different lives. From the early days of skateboarding, basketball and snowboarding. To music, comedy, film making, writing and now photography...it’s always been a big part of my life. Photography gives me such an outlet to express myself. No matter what type of image I'm creating its always such a personal process. Everything from the effort and time I spend to capture a moment to the music I listen to while editing an image. Its all a way to show and express myself.

Words like "talent, creative, artistic" are great words to describe a person. But to me, these words describe someone that learned to lean into the act of expressing themself. In whatever way they enjoy. I feel like repetition and passion goes much further than the label "talented". Every one of us has the ability to create something that evokes a feeling. For ourselves or another person. You never know how something you create will affect someone else. Simply by expressing yourself you may change someones mind about their own path of expression. Their artistic path, their creative path, their talent path. (Ok, they are nice words)

I've been through my share of hard and somewhat impossible times over the last few of years. Photography has helped me work through the darkest of those times. The ability to create images and videos that express my feelings at certain moments has been vital to my healing. The time and space to travel and work my way through trauma through photography has changed me as a person.The flood of feelings and perspective of being somewhere you feel small. Mountains, wilderness, ocean, glacier, vast desert and so on. To me this is a feeling of peace, where I can find space to express myself.

I hope everyone finds a way to express themselves. I hope they find a safe space to do it. Whether it’s alone somewhere far from the noise of life. Or within a group of like minded individuals that support the idea of the vital action of expression.

Because dammit...we need your art!

We need your stories. We need your music. We need your paintings, and your photography. We need you poetry, we need your books, your words. We need your films, we need you sculptures...and some much more!

We need your expression!

As always,

breathe , wander, create, repeat.

-Matty