My name is Matt Rodriguez and I’m a photographer based out of New Jersey. My story begins in 2020, recently furloughed from a job I didn’t even actually like. I had a computer science degree I no longer wanted to use and was on the search for new interests. Without any real responsibility for the first time in a long time and a sense of freedom (and boredom), I tried things; cutting hair, cooking, hiking. Anything that peeked my interest just for the sake of it, but also to see if anything sparked a career. And then my brother got a camera.
Every time we would hike, he loved capturing the views at the top of each outlook. Never content with how the iPhone imagery came out, he bought a camera to better reflect the views we’d had at the top of each destination. So he got a camera… I wanted a camera. Simple as that. Did I know how to use a camera? No, but figured it could be a fun hobby and I had nothing but time. I started playing with my dad’s old Nikon DSLR camera taking some of the worst long exposure shots you can imagine and asking him, “why are all my pictures so dark?”
After hours of studying and research on YouTube University, I bought my first camera. I wanted to photograph anything and anyone. Far too many photos were taken of the family dog or my mom cooking in the kitchen. I asked friends to go on photoshoots of their cars, go on hikes, walk around a park. Practice and reps was all I wanted. Anything to get out and try to get better at this newfound passion.
Fast forward 2 years and still without a real job, I was coaching youth soccer and doing freelance photo/video for local AAU basketball teams. I ended up at a job in New York in the spring of 2022. It was entry level, but an opportunity that I took and ran with. I photographed my favorite athletes, went to different countries, interviewed artists, all the while getting reps in in both photo and video. It all started out with pure curiosity to try something different and a drive to make a passion into a career. Now every chance I get you can catch me with a camera in my hand waiting for an opportunity to use it. Does it annoy my friends on trips every time I stop to take a photo of a scene others would normally walk past? Yeah, but it’s the curiosity that got me here and I’m excited to see where it’ll take me.
