Matt Borkowski is a Brooklyn, NY based photographer focused on minimalism and environmental portraiture. Matt is currently pursuing printed publication, exhibition, and commissioned opportunities. His extensive artistic background includes work in graphic and web design, fashion, and literature.

I’ve recently been working on expanding the editorial work in my portfolio. Iʼve had the pleasure of working with some really amazing people (who also happen to be models) and I wanted to take the opportunity to showcase some of the work weʼve put together over the past few months.

When I first moved to New York in the fall of 2007, I was enrolled in fashion school to study merchandising. I was 18-years-old and had recently wrapped up a year of hodge-podging around my hometown of Monterey, California, in which I spent time working at Robert Talbott, a storied bespoke mensʼ clothier. It was a great experience being exposed to graphic and textile design at such a young age. I was even able to produce some of my own silks for cravats. I think it was at Talbott that I really considered fashion and design to be a viable and enjoyable career to pursue. My opinion changed, however, after being exposed to certain aspects of the fashion industry, most notably the extreme superficiality that, to me, creates a very Los Angeles vibe in contrast the overt reality of New York. It just wasnʼt my cup of tea, at least from the perspective of a merchandiser.

After removing myself from school after my freshman year, I feel like I grew up immediately. Then my girlfriend (now fiancé) relocated to New York from California and we moved in together. Life was different, but better. I was happy with where I was, working at a retailer (whose name I wonʼt mention or talk down, because all in all, they were pretty cool), yet something was still missing. In the fall of 2010, I made the decision to make a change and began pursuing my career in photography. I had learned a bit of film photography at my high school, where I was able to learn the basic principles of light and composition, develop my own film in a darkroom, and then learn how to utilize the magic of Photoshop after scanning images into a computer. Though other than this one semester of exposure to photography, I have no formal training except for shooting and learning on my own, failing and then trying things again. I think that I just have a really passionate love for the art. And now that Iʼve had a little over two years of doing something that I really enjoy, itʼd be hard to imagine ever doing anything else.

Photography is something that, to me, is always changing and in many ways adaptive to everyone’s own personal style and eye. When I made the decision to start shooting editorial portraiture and incorporating models into my work, I had a bit of difficulty figuring out my style and trying not to let other types of editorial work hold influence over my perspective. I love shooting “regular” portraits, if thatʼs what youʼd call it. I still feel as though Iʼm influenced by fashion and can appreciate it from an artistic standpoint much more than that of a buyer, if you will. Iʼm still building my portfolio in this regard and Iʼm really enjoying doing so. Itʼs also a really cool opportunity for my fiancé and I to work together, as sheʼs a trained make up artist and helps me out immensely on shoots.

As I continue to broaden my scope in this field and shoot more amazing people, Iʼve also got a few really intriguing projects lined up, so stay tuned. In the next few months Iʼll be submitting more of these entries.

-Matt Borkowski

To learn more about Matt and his work, please visit the following website: www.mattborkowski.com.