Mathew Scott

Mathew Scott featuring his on-going series ‘The Concrete River’

I’d love to start by having you introduce yourself, how does your camera help you observe and respond to your surroundings? How do you use it as a tool to communicate?

My name is Mathew Scott and I’m a photographer currently based in Los Angeles. I grew up in Portland, Oregon, in a pretty creative household. My dad was into photography so I was exposed to it at an early age. He would set up his makeshift studio in various rooms around the house and photograph local bands (this is late 80’s, early 90’s so think big hair and animal print clothing), family, friends, pretty much anyone who wanted a portrait. Those early memories planted the seeds for later in life. I learned to use the darkroom in high school and was always shooting and documenting my friends doing dumb stuff, I was really into zines and those kinds of things. I always had an interest in photography but it wasn’t until I was in my early 20’s, living in San Francisco that I finally decided to take it more seriously and get a formal education so I enrolled in the photo program at The Academy of Art, San Francisco and haven’t looked back since.

My camera helps me observe and respond to my surroundings in many ways. The defining moment for me when I realized this, was when I was in school and I decided to do a project on this residential hotel that was located in the SOMA neighborhood of San Francisco. It was a place I knew all too well because I used to live in this hotel when I had first moved there. I didn’t take much with me when I moved to SF after abruptly leaving Portland behind and I quickly ran out of money and options so I ended up taking a job cleaning bathrooms at this hotel in exchange for a bed to sleep in while working a graveyard shift at Kinko’s. I always regretted not having a camera during this time in my life, as I came across some really amazing characters. Everyone had a story to tell but I had no way to document it and that always bothered me.

So years later, when I did have a camera, I decided to re-visit this place for my final school project and I spent a month trying to photograph the people living there and show a side of the city that a lot of my classmates hadn’t experienced. This is the project that changed everything for me and has shaped how I approach my work to this day. I learned a lot about myself and photography during this time but the main thing I took away from that experience was how powerful the camera can be. Before this, I was just using it as this little box I carried around, recording what was in front of me in a very basic and clinical way. Working with the people I met at the hotel really opened my eyes to what can happen when you take some time to talk to someone, familiarize yourself with their environment, their story and their struggles. All of these interactions start from a simple request to make a portrait. I realized my camera gave me a way to approach, and better understand people, to look around more carefully and investigate my surroundings. I feel my camera gives the people I’m interacting with a desire to participate as well and it creates this great collaborative environment while encouraging me to slow down, really listen and and do my best to understand the situation while challenging me to organize everything visually in a way that tells the story in an honest and genuine way.

My camera is my voice. I’m an introvert and can be a little socially awkward at times. When I have my camera it helps me confront these insecurities and I end up getting to know people I would most likely never talk to otherwise. I genuinely feel like a different person when I’m out with my camera. There’s a level of confidence and focus that I don’t usually have during normal social situations. So I guess a lot of the things that I would generally be too hesitant to communicate verbally, I feel I can illustrate those thoughts and ideas through my photographs.

Can you share your relationship with the LA river? At what point did you decide to begin your ongoing series The Concrete River? What about it intrigued you?

Growing up in Portland, my idea of the LA River was shaped by whatever movie I may have seen, which basically had me believing the entire thing was just this post-apocalyptic wasteland. In 2015, I got a studio space in Frogtown, which was right at the edge of the river and that’s when my interest began. It was completely different than what I had always imagined. There were trees, people fishing and a bike path, it was a side of LA that was completely new to me. It was the first place I had found since living here that didn’t feel like it fit into every LA stereotype and cliche.

Since moving here, I was always looking for a way to figure this city out and after doing a little research on the river and its path through LA, that was when I decided to look into it as a project and hopefully dig a little deeper and try to understand more about this city I called home.

Some of my first trips were in the Elysian Vally area of the river. I could walk there from my studio so it was a good place to start exploring, shoot a few rolls and see how things played out. Some of those first portraits I made are still some of my favorites from the project and they’re images I often revisit when I start to feel stuck or feel like I may have strayed away from what I originally set out to do.

I’ve had long conversations with people I’ve met about how much the river has changed over the years, gentrification, the houseless community who live in the river, the environmental issues that exist within the river’s ecosystem and even the marvels of modern engineering that keep the river functioning. The list goes on and all of that is part of the story, it all coexists together along a 50 mile stretch of concrete and water.

From your observations how do people use the LA river? How does it serve a variety of needs?

It really depends on who you talk to but a common theme I hear a lot is people use it as a way to escape. It’s very accessible as it runs right through the city but in certain areas it can feel like you’ve been transported to an entirely different place. You can be in the heart of Silverlake, Atwater, or any of those overly populated neighborhoods of Northeast LA and with a decent walk or short drive, you can find yourself on this weird little desolate beach surrounded by trees. A lot of people I have met go down there for a place to relax, take a break and clear their minds. Others use it as a means for survival, they live there, it’s their home and it provides them with everything they need. Some people just like to use it as a place to hang out and feel “off the grid” like this group of kids I met that invited me to check out this elaborate tree fort they built. There’s also people who live nearby and use it recreationally as a place to practice fishing or go on urban hikes. There’s even a kayaking tour you can take.

The river is like this alt-universe where you can still kind of hear the sounds of a big city but when you look around, you feel like you’re completely alone, in the middle of nowhere, with only the slight view of the large transmission towers that line the river to remind you of where you are. This is probably what I relate to the most, as it was what first attracted me here and sometimes when I stumble on an area I hadn’t noticed before, I am still reminded those feelings I had when I initially started exploring down here.

How do you go about covering the length of the river, do you focus on one location? How does it change as you move across it from neighborhood to neighborhood?

It really depends on my schedule. If I am pressed for time but still have that urge to shoot for myself, I will usually just go to the area that I have always found the most interesting which is Elysian Valley. I have covered this section pretty thoroughly so when I’m there, my main goal is to create portraits. When I have more time (like basically all of this year), I like to spend the day exploring a larger stretch of the river. I usually do some research beforehand, looking for points of interests like parks, landmarks, or any kind of recreational area that would attract people. I will use this as my guide for the day while exploring the in-between areas along the way and if there’s something I find interesting I will take notes and revisit those locations until I feel I have gotten what I wanted. This approach works best in the winter months as the light in LA is pretty amazing all day long. In the summer months, I prefer to just focus on the later part of the day so my destinations are more targeted to one specific area that I’m interested in.

Since the river stretches across LA and into Long Beach, the different sections definitely change as you move through the various neighborhoods. For example, the area around Studio City feels almost too manicured, the trail along the side the river is perfectly groomed and the river runs through this nicely cut out canal. It feels weird and manufactured, whereas when you go to the Griffith Park area of the river, everything feels very worn out and unmaintained. In this area, the natural river bed is coming back and the trees are growing through and breaking up the concrete embankment in places, it’s all very interesting. Then you have these large stretches that tend to look the same for miles like from Boyle Heights through Downtown or through Vernon, Bell Gardens and some of the neighborhoods south of Downtown. These areas can be a little challenging to shoot because of that and trying to figuring them out takes a little more research beforehand. I spend a lot of time just walking, often not even shooting, just trying to take it all in and make sense of everything, paying attention to all the little details that make these areas unique.

The one thing that has always allowed me to define these different neighborhoods are the people and their stories which is why the portraits play such a huge part of this project. I guess going back to what I said earlier in regards to what my idea of the river was before moving here, I’d like to show it outside the typical Hollywood view that I held in my head for so long and give people a new perspective. It’s a much more complex and interesting place than that. It’s a real river with a long and strange relationship with LA, one that continues to evolve, while simultaneously, still largely ignored.

To keep up to date with Mathew’s latest work by following along here:
Instagram
Instagram for series ‘The Concrete River’
Website