Matt Black

For over five years this Magnum Photos member crossed the USA to document poverty. Steve Fairclough discovers more…

- Steve Fairclough

Matt Black was born in 1970 and lives in California’s Central Valley. His work has focused on themes of geography, inequality, and the environment in his native region and in related places.

His work includes The Dry Land, about the impact of drought on California’s agricultural communities, and The Monster in the Mountains, about the disappearance of 43 students in the Mexican state of Guerrero. Both of these projects were published by The New Yorker.

In June 2015 he became a nominee member of Magnum Photos and became a full member in 2019. His work has appeared regularly in Time, The New Yorker, The California Sunday Magazine, and other publications. He has been honored three times by the Robert F Kennedy Memorial Prize, including its top honor for journalism.

Matt Black is a serious storyteller. Serious in the sense that he takes the time to delve deep into stories; serious in his dedicated approach to research; and serious in that he’s not afraid to tackle difficult subjects, although he does so with an acute empathy that is rare, even in the worthy world of photojournalism. All of this seems to stem from his roots – where he came from and how it has profoundly affected his outlook on life and his approach to documentary photography.

Black comes from an area of California far away from the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, showbiz, and multi-million dollar mansions. The Central Valley, a 450-mile-long valley that dominates the central part of the state, is an area that’s often overlooked but is known for being agricultural, producing over half of the fruit, nuts, and vegetables grown in the USA. Despite that, it’s not an area of wealth and great working conditions – it’s known to have badly paid workers, poor health, and groundwater pollution, amongst other negative socio-economic factors.