Creating a Career

by RS McKee

Sometime in his early teens Matt McKee acquired an inexpensive camera, and for the first time became aware of the creative potential in photographic images. While photography may not have clicked instantly in his mind, the idea tucked itself away in a corner, a softly glowing ember.

He was always a hands-on kind of child, interested in collecting and creating, making things of wood and plastic. His parents describe how, as a child, he hoarded plastic model parts in his room, saving bits and pieces of all sorts of debris, which he then manipulated and assembled into his own creations. Matt often accompanied his father on trips to the town dump on Saturday mornings to see what he could salvage. He would drag home whatever flotsam he could convince his father was absolutely necessary, to add to his stockpile. The top of his desk, which was really a workbench, was littered with projects in various stages of completion, and sometimes destruction. His parents often referred to his room as “the swamp,” but never doubted that his behavior foretold a future in the creative arts.

Throughout his formal education Matt tried a variety of media, working with his hands to create photographs, paintings, drawings, graphic design, etchings, sculpture, pottery, collages. His talent was obvious, everyone said, but diffuse. His late teens and early twenties were a time of searching, sampling, tasting, weighing. He went off to Alfred University at eighteen, as an art major. However, he admits now that the distractions of college life proved a formidable impediment to maturity as an artist. Although he gained valuable experience from Alfred’s strong art program, he withdrew after a couple of frustrating years, still uncertain of what he really wanted from art and from life.

Over the next few years he gained useful experience by earning an associate’s degree in restaurant and hotel management, by working as a bartender and even by trying his hand at Disney World. But art would not give up on Matt, nor could he leave it alone. He would find himself thinking about and then working on various projects, usually involving photography, in his spare time. Finally, at about the age of 25, he came to recognize and accept art’s powerful hold on him. With the added maturity, he also came to understand that he would have to narrow his focus dramatically if he intended to find a career (i.e. make a living) in art. Once he had commited to making his way as an artist, the spark that was lit way back in his early teens, that had glowed softly for a decade, became a bonfire. There was no doubt by now that photography would be his medium.

Matt earrned a bachelor of science degree from The Rochester Institute of Technology, and his experiences in this outstanding school turned him into a technically skilled and passionate photographer. He moved to the Boston area and for a year or so worked as a free-lance assistant for other photographers. Gradually he began to take on his own work as well, and soon was applying his talents in the production of annual statements and other corporate publications. He did pro bono work for charities, and shot photos for college handbooks, helped with brochures for resorts and businesses, designed packaging. He also made time for his first love, the artistic creations possible in nature and portrait photography. Of equal importance, he married his other first love at this time, and started a family.

Matt’s flawless technical execution is the hallmark of his photography, whether he is working in a business or corporate venue, or wandering the woods or seashore. His love of hands-on manipulation, of making things, has lead him to develop skills in wood and metal working, which he uses to create his own props and technical equipment. Digital photography and computers have become tools with which he may further enhance his art.

Matt has been driven by creative urges all his life. Now, as a professional photographer, he is not only creating art, he has been able to use those same skills, instincts, and insights to create a career for himself.

R. S. McKee

July, 2004