Conversations with Matt Warren

Today we’d like to introduce you to Matt Warren.

Hi Matt, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Hi! My name is Matt Warren, and I’m a photographer and graphic designer based in East Tennessee. So, I got into photography by complete accident. I went to Riverdale High School in Murfreesboro for my freshman year. My favorite class that year was called “Visual Communications”, where we ran the school news network, made vinyl sticker signs, and did various other forms of media.

After that year, my family and I moved to Crossville, TN, and when signing up for classes for my sophomore year, I saw in the electives a class titled “Visual Communications”, and without reading what the class at this specific school was all about, I signed up for it without hesitation. You could imagine my surprise when I started the class and it wound up being a photography course, where we started taking photos with pinhole boxes, the latter progressing to film cameras, and eventually moving on to digital cameras.

It was the best mistake I ever made because it changed the course of my life as a creative. See, growing up, I was really into drawing. I always wanted to be an illustrator or work with animation when I grew up, but when I look back now, I don’t think I ever had a true passion for it. At least not like I did when I started this photography course. It’s now been 10 years since I graduated high school, meaning it’s been 10 years since I took an art class and a photography class, and photography is the thing that’s stuck with me ever since.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
So one of the hardest parts of my journey was actually my first year out of high school. In my photography classes in high school, we were allowed to sign out different cameras to take home with us for the weekend. And now, here I am, going to college, and I don’t even have my own camera. Fortunately, someone I made friends with in college had a camera, and we would occasionally go out and take photos.

But that wasn’t enough for me. Fast forward throughout the rest of that college year, and I was just itching to get a camera in my hands. At the end of the spring semester of my freshman year of college, a friend came to me with an opportunity to be a camp counselor for the summer at a small local camp, and I accepted it immediately, as I had made the decision to drop out of college and thought having a summer job would be a good thing for me.

It was then that my dad proposed an idea to me. He had found a bundle deal for a Canon EOS Rebel t3i online. It came with a bag, a kit lens, a 70-300mm lens, and a few extra little things. I wasn’t making a ton of money from working at this camp because it’s just a small local camp, needing two times as much as I was making to be able to afford this camera bundle.

But my father offered to cover the other half for me if I could pay him back at a later date when I’d actually start working a regular job. So after my tenure at the summer camp, we got the camera, and a friend actually recommended me to a couple he knew to do wedding photos for them a couple of months later, so I’d have my dad paid back quickly.

But I did it, I finally got my first real DSLR, and I felt like the world was my oyster, and I was ready to create.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I would say I specialize in portraits, self-portraits, and lifestyle/candid. With my portraits, I really specialize in doing work for music artists, so photos that can be used for social media and editorials, album covers, promotional material, posters, etc. I grew up loving and listening to music, and cover art always stuck out to me as something important.

So when I work with an artist, I do my best to give them the best visuals possible to grab people’s attention or make them stick out. I’ve also been getting back into concert photography recently, so when it comes to doing work for music artists, that’s probably where I’m the most diverse

With self-portraits, I’ve learned how to make it look more like I’m just a model and not the one who’s also taking the photo. When I started off with my own camera, I didn’t really have anyone to model for me, so I practiced by getting in front of the camera myself. What I learned, later on, is this actually helped me be a better photographer because I can empathize with people who feel uncomfortable being in front of a camera.

When I do self-portraits, I’m at fault for everything that may be wrong with the photo; whether I blinked or didn’t turn my head enough, or whether my camera settings weren’t correct, it all falls on me when I get a bad result. So I’ve learned a lot about posing and composing an image through doing self-portraits, and portraits of other people have actually become easier because of it.

My last specialty takes place in a very niche community. My best lifestyle/candid photos are ones I’ve taken when going to cigar lounges. Sometimes, I’ll just take my camera on a random day and snap a couple of photos while I’m there enjoying a nice cigar and some bourbon. Other times, I’ll be covering a big super bowl party, or an anniversary or birthday celebration the lounge is throwing.

My photos at cigar lounges tend to give people a sort of “fly on the wall” perspective. I’ve had people tell me that my cigar lounge photography has made them want to go check out their local lounge because they get a very inviting sense of warmth from what I shoot. But the other big reason I work hard with this niche sort of coverage is that I’m supporting small local businesses with it. From providing photos for them to use for cigar reviews, to using photos to advertise upcoming events, I love using my main passion to help people and businesses I frequent and support.

What’s really funny is I’ve blended my self-portraiture and my cigar photography into one, and now I will post my own reviews of cigars using my own professional photos to promote the product.

How can people work with you, collaborate with you, or support you?
You can easily reach out to me via social media, e-mail, or phone if you’d like to collaborate! I’d love to provide excellent work for you. If all you want to do is support and not do work, then you can follow my Instagram and share my work with others. Word-of-mouth is so important for us creatives to get more work!

(I would plug my cashapp if you want to just support me monetarily, but I feel like that’s a bit too cheeky lol). Any support of any kind means the world to me though. I’m very blessed to have the support from family, friends, artists, and businesses that I have, and do what I love to do with freedom.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: www.instagram.com/mattewarren/
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/matt.warren.121/
• Other: https://cash.app/$mattewarren
• https://www.redbubble.com/people/MattWarren/shop