Emily Matyas

Life's cycles and the emotions associated with them fascinate me. The world is in a continual flux, a never-ending movement between creation, stability and endings. It is necessary for people to make sense of these changes. Making photographs slows down the process of observation long enough to bring about a deeper awareness of a situation. This consciousness provides insight to the connections between people and their influence on each other. For everything is a mobium of circumstance. One thing affects another affects another. I photograph my immediate family because they are closest to me. We go through many of life's cycles together. Observing them clues me into the past and makes it possible to contemplate the future.

I find that when an era of my life has closed, it is essential to remake myself in an attempt to adjust to the new situation. It can be a daunting task. There may be a desire to hang on to yesterday, especially when it represents something comfortable or the memory of a loved one. But the past never slips away entirely. By making photographs I've learned that the old is a part of the new. Often, something in the present will resonate with what has gone before. It's as if the past comes back, except that it has changed. It may be traits passed on to a new generation, like the color of my daughter's eyes being just the same deep brown as my father's or her habit of walking on her toes which is what I did as a child. Or, it may take an entirely different form, like dry leaves becoming mulch for next year's flowers or a felled tree becoming lumber for a new home. I find this continuity comforting, like a thread that appears and reappears at intervals in a woven pattern, reminding me of life's endurance.

EDUCATION

EXPERIENCE

EXHIBITIONS