you’re reading:HEROES magazine6Matt captures a sense that the most important and pivotal momentsin life that can be borne out of the boredom of being a teenager, onthe edge of adulthood, but still relegated to the edges of it.
the article:DIE LAMB - MATT LAMBERT// Issues of youth sexuality and identity have beena fertile creative wellspring for you in recent years,across both your fiction and nonfiction works.What is it that repeatedly draws you back to theexploration of this subject?I initially started creating work that explored sexualityto find ways to therapeutically deconstruct questionsI didn’t have the means to communicate and explorewhen I was younger. Now, with the exponentially evolvingstate of our virtual dimensions; it feels like the workis no longer about making statements, but about beingpart of an ongoing dialogue.// What do you think has been the most significanttransformation in your work?The most significant transformation has actuallyhappened this year after finally settling into my own inBerlin. This city has slowed me down, forced me to pullfrom my gut and be more honest with myself. In turn,I’ve been more productive than ever. I live in a bubblecompared to my lives in LA, NYC and London, and havebecome much less concerned about what other peopleare doing outside of a close group of peers.// What drew you to Berlin?I studied outside of Frankfurt in Uni and came back toBerlin a lot when living in London. After a couple yearsof non-stop commercial work in NYC, I realized I neededto get back to the basics and simplify in order to make.// What strikes you about the youth of Berlin?This may not just Berliner’s, but the new generationseems so much more open that the kids I grew up with.Their relationship to different ideas, people, sexuality,etc. come with little judgement. Berlin, though is also aplace people come to get lost and swallowed up.// What are the similarities and differences betweenthe German capital and your hometown, LA?They can both feel bleak, vast and dystopian...// Berlin together with London, another formerdestination, are two cities strongly associated withthe culture of punks and skinheads; elements whichyou seem to incorporate a lot in your works. What’sthe story behind that?It’s not just those cities. Growing up in LA I was arounda pretty intense skinhead scene as well as gangbangerand punk crews. I rediscovered these scenes in Londonand then watched them all fuse into a homo-cult/punkblender after living in NYC. Berlin has been a placeto synthesize all these lives and experiences into areduced version.// Sex and violence also seem to be two veryrecurring themes to your projects. What personallyintrigues you about each one?These were both things that scared me when I wasyounger, mostly because I didn’t understand them.There was extreme violence and an extreme masculinesexuality around me that was paired with it. I startedmaking work about these subjects to understand,demystify and own them.// Do you feel that moving to Europe has given youa certain artistic freedom to finally portray suchthemes with a bigger ease? Why so?Despite liberal America imagining itself as progressive,it usually does so theoretically when it comes tosexuality and social issues. Outside of a few scenesI’ve had the pleasure of hooking up with, most of theUS preach what is actually ingrained in Berlin youth.This has allowed me to lay a canvas with people thatare genuinely open to exploration. There’s also anunmanufactured honesty and purity in the subjects Iwork with in Europe that I have to work a lot harder tofind in the US.// Your pictures always have this rough feeling tothem, like a wasteland-wonderland. Where do allthese images come from? What has influenced you?So much of what I shoot is a way to revisit my youthin LA. I’m able to channel the confusion, aggressionand suffocation of my time as a teen through the moreevolved, adjusted and more balanced souls of modernyouth (primarily in Berlin). Punk Rock, Skate, Skinhead,7
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