Matt Wisniewski by Jessica Putnam

Matt Wisniewski combines old and new to create mixed media mind-

boggling portrait landscapes that are absolutely stunning. The combination of the

portrait and landscape leads way to a dreamscape of “hauntingly beautiful” pieces,

as Wisniewski describes his works.

With his method mainly consisting of photography, collage, and

appropriation I thought he was a great fit for the project as our lesson this week hits

upon these key elements. He sometimes uses his own photography, but most often

uses source images and ‘found’ images for the ease. Multiple exposure photography

can be risky and it is very time consuming, while Photoshop is literally mistake free.

A correction can be made with the click of a mouse, which is much easier than

traditional media. In an interview Wisniewski states that he does all his work in

Photoshop because “even when using my own photography in-camera multiple

exposures are hit or miss and give me a lot less control.” Currently there is only one

image on his website that uses his own photography. When asked about it he said

that he would like to shoot more for use in the future, but with his art career, school,

and everything else keeping him pretty bogged down, he has other things to focus

his time on at the moment. Using source images is extremely beneficial when it

comes to time constraints. He is able to cut production times nearly in half. He also

gets high-resolution files from other artists who are interested in collaborating with

him. As much of his recent work has been done in high-resolution, he is looking

forward to an exhibition in the near future.

Wisniewski is originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he was born

in 1990. The twenty-one year old New York based artist and web developer spends

most of his time between New York City and Rochester, where he is attending

school at Rochester Institute of Technology. He is currently working on his degree

in Computer Science. The soon to be graduate will be moving to Brooklyn to

embark on the journey that is his future, which he hopes will include making more

pieces. He has tinkered in drawing, painting, and photography as well, yet finds

Photoshop to be the most forgiving and easiest medium to work with. “I’ve created

things for as long as I can remember, really. The collage is just sort of something

that happened as a result of that.”

When considering genre, his works could be placed under portrait,

landscape, digital collage, and appropriation art. He is often referred to as the

Photoshop guru. He says his work is entirely experimentation. He has only been

toying around with it for about a year now. Pretty insane portfolio for what most

people would refer to as a beginner in the art field.

Wisniewski searches the internet for his images, mainly taking photos from

tumblr, flickr, and other blog sites as well as public domain. He tends to look for

photographs that incorporate both the beauty of nature and the beauty of the

human form. After he finds an image he wants to work with, he manipulates the

image - and often times combines multiple other images - through Photoshop using

an array of techniques. When asked to describe his process, Wisniewski says, “I

spend some time experimenting with quick combinations of portraits and textures.

Once I find something that catches my eye I clean it up and elaborate a bit more if I

think it’s possible or necessary.” He usually chooses natural organic patterns over

urban elements for his portraits, as they tend to mesh better. The resulting digital

art collages are a stunning mash-up of high fashion and Mother Nature in all its

elements.

In my research, I found a blog post that describes his work in summary. To

quote Pinar, “The surreal visual experiments depict a variety of natural elements as

an extension of the photos’ subjects. The grainy texture of soil, the coarse surface of

mountainous regions, and the salty flow of ocean water add visual excitement and

intrigue to each image. Landscaping the contours of the human figure gives a whole

new meaning to human nature.” His style is unique and the resulting images are

ethereal. When I first came across his work I was awestruck. I could stare at his

images all day. He includes just the right amount of ghostly opacity to his layers,

combining the fluidity of natural elements with beautiful body forms. The intricacy

involved in his collage technique is phenomenal, yet he achieves an almost perfect

accuracy when melding layers.

References:

http://mattw.us/images/

http://www.aweh.tv/matt-wisniewski/

http://designtonicmag.com/2012/matt-wisniewski/

http://www.yatzer.com/Matt-Wisniewski-talks-to-yatzer

http://issuu.com/wetheurban/docs/wetheurbanissue4/95

http://issuu.com/humanizemagazine/docs/humanize14/57

http://www.ladiesngents.com/en/curator/Interview2.asp?thisPage=1

http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/nature-infused-human-beings

http://lightbox.time.com/2012/02/02/dreamscapes-matt-wisniewskis-digital-

collages/#1

The Big Wisniewski

himself & his tumblr

Five Minutes to Live

http://fivem.tumblr.com/