BIO

Matthew Connors is an artist whose commitment to the medium of photography has been propelled by the revelatory potential of the public sphere. Rooted in specific currents of history, his bodies of work create a new visual encyclopedia of forms, portraits, symbols, and residues that emerge from protest movements, war, and oppressive systems of governance. His lyrical yet methodical approach resonates with political documentary and street photography, but continually challenges and transforms these categories.

His photographs have been exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Roma, and DOX Centre for Contemporary Art in Prague. His first monograph Fire in Cairo (SPBH Editions, 2015) was awarded the ICP Infinity Award for best artist book in 2016. He has also been awarded the Abigail Cohen Rome Prize, a Headlands Center for the Arts Residency, two MacDowell Colony Fellowships, the Lightwork Artist-in-Residence Fellowship, and the Virginia Center for Creative Arts Fellowship.

Connors earned a BA in English Literature from the University of Chicago and a MFA in Photography from Yale University. He has taught in the Image Text Ithaca MFA Program, the Yale University MFA Program, and in the Photography Department at the Massachusetts College of Art & Design where he has been a professor since 2004.

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NEWS

AAR Open Studios
June 5, 2025. 6-9pm

Sublime Cliché
May 28 - Aug 24, 2025
Group Exhibition
MACRO. Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Roma
Rome, Italy

Rome Prize Fellowship
2024-2025 Abigail Cohen Rome Prize
The American Academy in Rome

The Axe Will Survive the Master
Solo exhibition
Mar 22 - May 02, 2023
Barnes Ogden Center, LSU
Baton Rouge, LA

Headlands Center for the Arts
Artist in Residence
Summer 2022

Folk Costumes, Indo-Pacific Air
Group Publication
ed. Urtzi Grau & Guillermo Fernández-Abascal
May 2022

MassArt Faculty Fellowship
2021 Recipient

Object Lesson
Sep 21, 2021 - Jan 08, 2022
Group Exhibition at TILT Institute
Philadelphia, PA

States of Change
Print sale benefit to fight voter suppression in AZ, FL, MI, PA & WI

Contact Sheet 208: Matthew Connors
General Assembly Exhibition Catalogue

General Assembly
Solo Exhibition
Aug 24 to Oct 15, 2020
Kathleen O. Ellis Gallery Light Work, Syracuse, NY

Partial Reveals & Inclusive Revelations in the Post-Truth Simulacracy: The Poetics
Chris Campanioni, The Brooklyn Rail (Jul-Aug, 2020)

Au Caire de la Révolte
Alessandro Zuffi, Libération ÉTÉ (Aug 25, 2020)

The Time is Now
Anti-racism fundraiser organized by Galerie Number 8 and Paper Journal

Photographs for Purpose
Print sale to benefit Equal Justice Initiative, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, Southerners on New Ground, and Planned Parenthood

YES FUTURE
Études print sale for Covid-19 relief

Headlands Center for the Arts
2020 Residency Recipient

Local Photographer Reflects on Hong Kong
TV interview with Liz Neisloss, WGBH Greater Boston (aired Jan 30, 2020)

American Photographer Who Covered Hong Kong Protests Denied Entry into City
Alvin Lum, South China Morning Post (Jan 4, 2020)

Tear Gas on One Street and Civilians Walking on Another
Feature with Karen Cheung and Lau Chi Chung in The California Sunday Magazine (Dec 1, 2019)

Letters to the Editor
Workshop with Matthew Connors and Curran Hatleberg
Nov 15-17, 2019
The Humid, Athens, GA

Family Car Poetics
Oyster Shucking and Book Signing
with Matthew Connors & Gus Powell
Sunday, Nov 10, 2019. 12pm - 3pm
Galerie Ghezelbash
12 Rue Jacob, Paris

The Poetics Reading at the New York Art Book Fair
with Lucy Ives Saturday, Sep 21, 2019. 3pm NYABF Classroom, MoMA PS1

The Poetics Book Launch
New York Art Book Fair 2019
Image Text Ithaca Table X08 in Focus: Photography

Wake Book Launch
New York Art Book Fair 2019 ROMAN NVMERALS Table O05 in Focus: Photography

PhotoWork: Forty Photographers on Process and Practice
ed. Sasha Wolf, Aperture

The Present Age
Feature in Closing Ceremony Magazine Issue 02

MacDowell Colony Fellowship
Recipient of a 2019 MacDowell Colony Fellowship

Reading and Discussion of The Poetics
with Lucy Ives
Friday, Nov 30, 2018. 6pm-8pm
Printed Matter, NYC

A Hidden Revolution: Inside North Korea
Interview with Giada De Agostinis in Paper Journal (Jun 2018)

MoMA’s Human Focus
Richard Woodward, The Wall Street Journal (Mar 15, 2018)

What’s New in Photography? Humanism, MoMA Says
Arthur Lubow, The New York Times (Mar 11, 2018)

Being: New Photography 2018
Group Exhibition
curated by Lucy Gallun
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Mar 18 - Aug 19, 2018

OSMOS Magazine
Feature of Unanimous Desires in OSMOS Magazine: Issue 14 (Apr, 2018)

Studio Visit – Matthew Connors
Interview with Giada De Agostinis, Paper Journal (May 2, 2017)

SELECTED PRESS & TEXTS

Hong Kong Free Press
(Aug, 2023)

Radio Free Asia
Interview with Gigi Lee
(Aug, 2023)

Light Work Exhibtion Video
(Sep, 2020)

Partial Reveals & Inclusive Revelations in the Post-Truth Simulacracy: The Poetics
Chris Campanioni, The Brooklyn Rail (Jul-Aug, 2020)

Local Photographer Reflects on Hong Kong
TV interview with Liz Neisloss, WGBH Greater Boston (aired Jan, 2020)

American Photographer Who Covered Hong Kong Protests Denied Entry into City
Alvin Lum, South China Morning Post (Jan, 2020)

Tear Gas on One Street and Civilians Walking on Another
Feature with Karen Cheung and Lau Chi Chung in The California Sunday Magazine (Dec, 2019)

What Does a Metaphor Rest Upon?
Andrianna Campbell, Contact Sheet: Light Work Annual (Summer, 2018)

A Hidden Revolution: Inside North Korea
Interview with Giada De Agostinis in Paper Journal (Jun, 2018)

MoMA’s Human Focus
Richard Woodward, The Wall Street Journal (Mar, 2018)

What’s New in Photography? Humanism, MoMA Says
Arthur Lubow, The New York Times (Mar, 2018)

Studio Visit – Matthew Connors
Interview with Giada De Agostinis, Paper Journal (May, 2017)

Interview with Clara Balaguer and Czar Kristoff
TUNICA Magazine, Issue No. 5 (Jun, 2016)

Cairo’s Crow Black Eye
Brad Feuerhelm, American Suburb X (May, 2016)

ICP Infinity Award Interview Video
(Apr, 2016)

From Occupy Wall Street to the Arab Spring
John Otis, The New York Times Lens Blog (Apr, 2016)

Fire in Cairo
Marco Bohr, Photomonitor (Mar, 2016)

A Critical Look at Fire in Cairo
Ronnie Close, Mada Masr Panorama (Feb, 2016)

Un Autre Regard sur la Place Tahrir
Hélène Sallon, Le Magazine du Monde (Jan, 2016)

Fire in Cairo: Revisiting the Revolution in Egypt
Paul Moakley, Time Lightbox, (Sep, 2015)

Books: How Can Photographers Respond to Landscapes of Conflict and Change?
Brian Sholis, frieze, No. 174 (Oct, 2015)

Matthew Connors, Fire in Cairo
Max Houghton, 1000 Words (Oct, 2015)

Matthew Connors, Fire in Cairo
Olga Yatskevich, Collector Daily (Oct, 2015)

Book Review: Fire in Cairo
Adam Bell, photo-eye (Sep, 2015)

Photobook Reviews (W36/2015)
Jörg M. Coberg, Conscientious Photo Magazine (Sep, 2015)

Fire in Cairo
Lucy Davies, British Journal of Photography (Jun, 2015)

Unsuspending Disbelief: The Subject of Pictures
Janina Ciezadlo, afterimage (Jan/Feb, 2015)

Participation, Documentation and the Future of Occupy
Interview with Dana Moser, Big, Red and Shiny (Jan, 2014)

SELECTED WRITING

Object Lesson: On the Influence of Richard Benson
Aperture, 2022

PhotoWork: Forty Photographers on Process and Practice
One of forty contributions to this book edited by Sasha Wolf. Aperture, 2019

100 Words or Less about Jeff
photograph magazine

Review of Michael Schmelling’s My Blank Pages
photo-eye (Mar, 2016)

The Photographer’s Playbook
A small contribution to this book of assignments edited by Jason Fulford & Gregory Halpern, Aperture, 2014

The Berber Uprising
A short story included in Fire in Cairo, SPBH Editions, 2015

Review of Tacita Dean’s Teignmouth Electron
The Highlights (Mar, 2008)

MATTHEW CONNORS

BOOKS | INFO

MATTHEW CONNORS