Matthew Fertel

A Foggy Notion: Photography

He Was A Man Of Many Layers: Photography

If I Knew You Were Coming I'd've Baked A Cake: Photography

The Nature of Things: Photography

The Perpetual Outrage Machine: Photography

The Proposition: Photography

---

Artist Statement

These images are from my "From The Scrap Heap" series, which consists of photographs of scrap metal in the Welding Department at Sierra College. Passing by the same location over days, months, and years allows me to photograph these metal scraps under different lighting and weather conditions. Small details get framed in ways that draw attention away from the actual object and focus on the shapes, textures, and colors, transforming them into abstract landscapes, figures, and faces. My goal is to use these out-of-context images to create compositions that encourage an implied narrative easily influenced by the viewer and open to multiple interpretations.

--
Matthew Fertel is a Sacramento-based abstract photographer who seeks out beauty in the mundane. He has worked in the Photography Department at Sierra College since 2004. Before that, he was a fine art auction house catalog photographer in San Francisco for over 10 years.