MATTHEW KAMHOLTZ STATEMENT & BIO
STATEMENT
Rebellion in the Time of Covid-19
Throughout the Summer and Fall of 2020, as the Covid-19 epidemic raged and the streets exploded in mass protests over the epidemic of police killings, I created a series of images by photographing television and computer screens as the protests, and the often brutal police reaction to them, played out on television newscasts, live streams, and video uploads. The images represent my photographic response to these events as I was obliged to shelter at home due to the pandemic.
This highly mediated photographic process, full of digital artifacts and partially resolved images, distorted reality, but paradoxically revealed the intensity and emotion of the scenes as well. Although I was physically distant, the images feel intensely present.
The complete body of work consists of 75 images, which have been collected in a self-published monograph, entitled On Screen. The images depict events that occurred in Atlanta, GA; Boston, MA; Brockton, MA; Brooklyn, NY; Chicago, IL; Detroit, MI; Kalamazoo, MI; Kenosha, WI; Lafayette, LA; Louisville, KY; Minneapolis, MN; New Orleans, LA; Omaha, NE; Philadelphia, PA; Portland, OR; Providence, RI; Raleigh, NC; Richmond, VA; Rochester, NY; Seattle, WA; Vancouver, WA; Washington, D.C.; Wauwatosa, WI; and Wolf City, TX.
BIO
Matthew Kamholtz graduated from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1974 with a degree in Music and Philosophy. After working in New York City as a picture framer and pianist he relocated to Boston, Massachusetts, where he attended Boston University School of Law, graduating in 1982. For 35 years he worked in the Boston area as a criminal defense lawyer, primarily representing indigent clients.
Kamholtz began to seriously study photography in 2007 when he attended his first workshop. Since then, he has participated in workshops with photographers working in the broad documentary tradition, including Jeff Jacobson, Stella Johnson, Constantine Manos, and Alex Webb.
His work has been exhibited at the Davis Orton Gallery in Hudson, New York, the Griffin Museum of Photography, the Minneapolis Photo Center, the Praxis Gallery of Minneapolis, the Photographic Resource Center of Boston, and the 20/20 Photo Festival of Philadelphia. In 2019, he was awarded a finalist grant by the Massachusetts Cultural Council.