Up next in 10
The Idea of a Perfect Imperfection
Aug 20, 2020
In this video Matt goes over his creative process and talks about the idea of 'perfect imperfection' in photography and art. He also goes over how he learned to process his own film and screen print art work at home. Check out some more of Matt's work on his portfolio here - http://mjmolo.com/ Follow Curtis Kairuki's work here: https://www.instagram.com/kariuki/?hl=en Be sure to Subscribe to Denied Approval here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6n_aF8B25CnESVprLPJgaA Follow Ted Forbes here: https://www.instagram.com/tedforbes/ Subscribe to the Art of Photography here: https://www.youtube.com/user/theartofphotography Learn How to Develop Color Film here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_e4AjUcZtE Background Music: Alone by Emmit Fenn - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC81hioFupMsG2MWMQy78oCw Birds by Corbyn Kites - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7A-8IDjlL2mYEz4Ozr2sFg Coast by Density & Time - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoOTOoAbEhY-WD_XhkvJBJg Good Job by R.LUM.R -https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3nT15TAAdpinCHmknJL2gw Melissa by Eveningland - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi0uheSErbivC3_662UqL-w Blue Macaw by Quincas Moreira - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL1zFMJb0sthwdAlGjGbdyg
View Video Transcript
0:00
what's going on youtube it's matt here
0:02
again
0:03
and today i'm going to be going over
0:05
something a little bit different
0:06
rather than going over um my photos
0:10
and going through like a photo walk or
0:11
something like that or showing you how
0:13
to
0:14
i'm just going to sit here and talk to
0:15
you about um
0:17
kind of my creative process and my
0:20
artistic theory if you will and just
0:23
kind of go over
0:24
how i create um the artwork that i
0:27
create
0:28
uh for me i know when
0:32
artists are going after whatever they're
0:34
trying to create
0:35
a lot of the time they're striving to be
0:37
perfect and they're striving for
0:40
um really something that they can't
0:42
create
0:43
with this um perfect quality and
0:47
for me when i started photographing um
0:50
it was probably around 2015 2016 when i
0:53
was finishing up high school
0:54
and i was just using a nikon d3300 like
0:57
a simple
0:58
digital dslr camera and i was using my
1:01
iphone to take a lot of
1:02
photos for like instagram stuff like
1:04
that and
1:06
what i realized was that um
1:09
i didn't necessarily like the way that
1:11
these photos were coming out because
1:13
that they were
1:15
they were not necessarily perfect but in
1:17
terms of
1:18
uh quality of the image there were too
1:20
many
1:21
like perfect qualities so what i mean by
1:23
that was it it was
1:25
i felt that digital photos were usually
1:27
too flat
1:28
um back then i didn't know how to edit
1:31
photos as much so i used to just like
1:34
assume that digital photos were like
1:37
always going to look a certain way and
1:39
that you couldn't really manipulate it
1:40
and create it how you wanted to
1:43
and so fast forward about
1:46
a year or two now it's like 2017
1:49
i just finished high school and i picked
1:51
up my first
1:53
point and shoot film camera this was
1:55
after
1:56
i had
1:59
had learned about this kid in worcester
2:02
a town near me
2:03
named curtis karayuki he's actually the
2:05
owner of this brand tonight approval
2:08
go check them out i'll link them in the
2:10
description but
2:11
he started shooting with some local
2:14
rappers around worcester
2:16
and eventually got picked up by
2:19
joyner lucas to help him you know shoot
2:21
some videos and stuff like that
2:23
and then he ended up going on tour with
2:24
uh ray strummer and
2:26
ray swemmer and um lil yachty i think
2:30
too afterwards so
2:31
uh one of the things that he inspired me
2:33
with the most was
2:34
the fact that he always had a
2:36
point-and-shoot camera i saw one of his
2:38
stories on instagram one day
2:40
he was in california or something like
2:41
that with lily audi and
2:43
he went to you know one of the local
2:46
like film labs with like
2:48
30 different point-and-shoots and just
2:50
drop them off to get them developed and
2:51
stuff
2:52
and to me that was just crazy because
2:56
i was so used to like this idea of if
2:58
you want to be a good photographer
3:00
you have to have like you know a super
3:03
good dslr camera with you
3:05
you need to have like a professional
3:07
attitude you need to be serious you need
3:09
to go
3:09
get these clients do all this work this
3:11
side or the other
3:12
and for me seeing this kid who is like
3:16
only a few years older than me
3:18
go on tour and photograph these like
3:20
famous people
3:22
with just like a point-and-shoot camera
3:24
i'm sure he had you know
3:25
a video camera or something with him as
3:27
well but to see all these photos that he
3:29
was making with just a point-and-shoot
3:30
that he could literally fit in his
3:32
pocket
3:33
just it made my photos it made me and
3:35
yeah it made me feel like
3:37
i'm not doing enough i'm not
3:38
working hard enough you know
3:40
if he's doing all this with a little
3:41
camera like why am i
3:44
struggling so much so i ended up
3:47
going out getting a disposable camera
3:49
just like the one he had you know the
3:50
ones you could pick up from cvs or
3:52
anything like that
3:53
and i just shot it just to see what
3:56
would happen
3:57
and i ended up getting it developed at
3:59
like the cvs or whatever that i bought
4:01
it at and i love the photos
4:02
i'll put some up on the screen now it
4:04
was my first kind of experience with
4:07
film
4:08
and for me it was like
4:12
i it it wasn't my first time seeing
4:15
these like imperfect qualities in a
4:18
photo
4:18
but it was the first time seeing those
4:20
imperfect qualities in my own work
4:22
and i had realized how you know you can
4:25
create different photos not only is it
4:28
in post-production
4:29
it's also during production so changing
4:31
up what what gear you're using what
4:33
lenses
4:34
what flashes you know microphones
4:36
anything that can be
4:37
involved with your production of the the
4:40
actual final product
4:42
and so once i got them developed i
4:44
realized oh
4:46
i need to start you know taking
4:48
more photos like this i like this a lot
4:50
it has more of this imperfect quality
4:52
there's you know a texture to it
4:54
there's a feel to it it doesn't just
4:56
feel like something that you know
4:59
you stumbled across took a photo of and
5:01
then put it out there
5:03
um there's more work to it there's more
5:05
effort and even this was before i was
5:07
developing my own film
5:08
and i still you know had more pride in
5:11
those photos than any of my other photos
5:13
so
5:14
um fast forward a little bit more and i
5:17
learned how to develop film on my own
5:19
because i had bought my own point and
5:20
shoot and
5:22
i i i wanted to keep shooting it but i
5:24
couldn't afford
5:25
you know to spend the money on the lab
5:28
every week or
5:29
every day like i wanted to so i ended up
5:31
going on youtube
5:33
um i would just watch hours of videos of
5:35
like how to develop
5:36
film just to figure out how to do it uh
5:40
for the first like week or two maybe
5:42
even month of watching those videos
5:44
i never even bought any of the equipment
5:46
or anything like that
5:47
personally i just really didn't think
5:49
that i had like the skill set to
5:51
actually develop the film
5:53
and so that kind of just deterred me i
5:55
would watch videos over and over and be
5:57
like
5:57
damn this is so cool like i wish i could
5:59
do that i bet you it's so hard i bet it
6:01
cost so much money all this out of the
6:03
other
6:04
so i ended up watching the this one
6:07
video i think it was a video for black
6:08
and white developing by ted forbes
6:10
he runs a channel called the art of
6:12
photography i'll link that below as well
6:14
make sure you check him out he's really
6:16
really smart and talented knows a lot of
6:18
about photography and videography
6:20
so
6:21
make sure you check him out if you're
6:22
interested he's taught me
6:24
a lot a lot and i've never even met him
6:26
so definitely check his channel out
6:29
um so yeah i watched this video about
6:31
him developing black and white
6:33
film at home i think it was like in his
6:35
bathroom sink or something and
6:38
he listed out all the equipment you
6:40
needed all you know
6:41
the timing that it would take everything
6:44
that was going
6:45
going on with the developing and i
6:47
hadn't really seen it before
6:49
like in that depth and with that much
6:52
instruction
6:53
and so once i saw that i was like okay i
6:55
could definitely do this i'm gonna
6:57
i'm gonna save up the money and you know
6:59
purchase all the equipment
7:01
do all this stuff and try and try and
7:04
figure it out
7:05
eventually it came in um this was when i
7:07
was still living in my parents house so
7:09
i went i went down into the storage
7:11
room in their basement and they had like
7:13
one of those big
7:14
like laundry sinks and i i think the
7:17
water i remember the water didn't even
7:19
get hot enough
7:20
for the chemicals um to get the right
7:22
temperature
7:23
but at that point after spending all the
7:25
money and all that time like waiting for
7:27
the stuff to come in i was just like all
7:29
right we need to uh
7:31
we need to we need to just make this
7:34
happen so i just tried it out i think i
7:36
was like 5 or 10 degrees off
7:37
from what the actual temperature was
7:39
supposed to be but i was like
7:41
what's it what at that time i was like
7:44
what what
7:45
what difference would it make if you're
7:46
5 or 10 degrees off it's still the
7:47
chemicals
7:48
so i just went for it it was like a
7:50
basic c41
7:52
kit that i picked up off picked up off
7:55
of
7:55
amazon i ended up doing the steps it
7:58
worked out
7:59
and i scanned the photos and this was
8:02
like the first time i was using that
8:03
scanner that i had bought it's like the
8:05
epson v550
8:07
and it was it took me so long and i was
8:10
like
8:11
i got so discouraged because i thought
8:14
like okay
8:15
is it always gonna take this long to
8:16
scan my photos i assume that developing
8:19
was the long part
8:20
and scanning was like just you know put
8:22
them through the scanner and they're on
8:24
your computer
8:25
that wasn't the case at all i did find
8:28
out later on that my settings were wrong
8:29
with the scanner
8:30
and that's what ended up taking it so
8:32
long to scan when i first started out
8:34
so now it doesn't take me as long but
8:37
scanning definitely is a big part of the
8:38
process and that
8:40
kind of lengthy process at the beginning
8:42
really taught me a lot which is
8:44
which is good but
8:47
moving forward after after i started
8:49
shooting film i started
8:50
realizing this these imperfect qualities
8:54
in my photos and
8:56
i started to realize like this is what
8:58
i'm this is what i'm looking for i'm not
9:00
looking for
9:01
a flat image even when i'm shooting film
9:03
i know there's some photographers out
9:04
there that
9:05
shoot film with the purpose of making it
9:07
like almost digital like where it's
9:10
super contrasty super you know crisp and
9:13
sharp
9:14
really good lighting everything like
9:15
that all the components that make up a
9:17
good you know digital image
9:18
but for me it wasn't about that it was
9:21
more so about
9:23
how am i gonna make these photos that
9:24
are kind of
9:27
perfect because they're imperfect you
9:29
know so
9:30
those messed up double exposures or you
9:33
know a photo where you develop it wrong
9:35
and it's got a huge
9:37
film flare burned through the middle
9:38
things like that you know those those
9:40
happy mistakes
9:42
that was why i wanted to start shooting
9:43
more film and
9:45
it's probably 2018 now and
9:49
i've got a pretty good process going
9:51
with my photos
9:53
my developing and everything like that
9:55
but i kind of wanted a little bit more
9:57
that's when i started making my own
9:59
artwork as well like outside of
10:01
photography
10:02
started painting a little bit drawing
10:04
doing screen printing things like that
10:06
i'll go ahead and put some of my work up
10:08
here my first my like early works were
10:10
screen printing um i really just wanted
10:13
to
10:14
get some of my photos or get some of my
10:16
drawings or you know whatever it was
10:19
get them on to fabric and materials
10:22
just not not to sell or anything like
10:24
that i just really wanted
10:26
wanted it for myself i wanted to see if
10:27
if i could do it
10:29
the same way i had learned about how to
10:31
develop film
10:32
i wanted to go out look on youtube how
10:34
to screen print you know
10:36
what are the materials i need what are
10:39
the skills that i need
10:40
and you know what do i actually
10:43
need to have you know for my location or
10:46
my setup like the studio setup wise
10:48
to make sure that i could get this going
10:50
so i went on
10:52
on youtube again like i said and figured
10:54
out how to do it it wasn't
10:56
it was the same as uh developing film it
10:58
wasn't that hard
10:59
wasn't too terribly expensive it was
11:01
probably a little bit more expensive
11:03
than developing film
11:04
but like i said you you're doing it you
11:07
know a different process and i just
11:09
wanted to learn it
11:10
so i ended up going on trying to figure
11:13
that out and
11:14
it actually worked out pretty well i was
11:16
able to screen print some of my photos
11:18
on the t-shirts and stuff
11:20
and put those up here now as well i was
11:22
able to
11:24
even kind of make some art like screen
11:26
printed artwork on
11:28
paper and canvas that i could later on
11:31
you know
11:31
keep and put into my portfolio and stuff
11:33
like that so it was all kind of just a
11:35
learning experience and how to create
11:37
like my own version of these things
11:40
obviously i could go to a store
11:42
and have them screen print you know um
11:45
20 to 25 you know 20 whatever x amount
11:48
of t-shirts that i want
11:49
with a certain logo but having myself
11:52
do it and you know actually manually
11:56
wiping the screen every time you're
11:58
making a shirt you get those
11:59
imperfections and that's
12:01
the same way with my photos that's the
12:03
same thing that i was striving for
12:04
in screen printing i would you know wipe
12:08
the
12:08
wipe the ink a certain way or pull the
12:11
screen off a certain way to try and
12:12
create different
12:14
different looks so that not one is the
12:16
same as the other
12:17
for me that was always a huge
12:21
i guess like selling point like if i
12:23
were to sell these one day or
12:25
if i were to get these out there one day
12:27
you know
12:28
um the fact that they're not the same
12:31
is the how do i say this is the
12:36
is the quality of it that's the value of
12:38
it you know every each one
12:40
is its own everyone that you know would
12:42
purchase it
12:43
would get their own so for me
12:46
that was always more intriguing as like
12:50
looking at it from a consumer's
12:51
perspective it was always more
12:53
intriguing to see
12:54
the differences in in all of the same
12:57
body of work or the same set
12:59
than having like all of them be the same
13:01
with the same little signature and
13:03
you know number and title and like
13:05
they're all the same like you could get
13:06
the same one as somebody else goes out
13:08
and buy so
13:09
that was you know that's cool and i
13:11
respect artists that do that but
13:13
for me um when creating my own style
13:16
that's kind of what i was looking for
13:17
and so let me i'm gonna pull our book
13:19
this is one of the
13:21
the books that i had started reading
13:22
around like 2016 and 17.
13:25
um it's by an artist called cytumly it's
13:27
kind of
13:28
uh i don't know if it's a specific book
13:32
of his work i think it's kind of just
13:34
you know an
13:35
all-around like portfolio review and
13:38
thing like that with tons of different
13:41
speeches about his artwork and
13:42
discourses and
13:43
um things like that so definitely go
13:46
check this book out because it's really
13:48
insightful cytome is just an incredible
13:51
artist
13:51
and when i first started um
13:56
looking through his work it really made
13:58
me you know
14:00
realize like the the perfection
14:03
of imperfection um i'll show you this
14:06
work right now
14:07
you know super it might be a little dark
14:09
i'll try and brighten it but
14:11
it's uh a lot of cytome's work is
14:14
is i don't even know how to describe it
14:17
it's very
14:19
people like to to say his work is very
14:21
like child like
14:23
like as if you know some kid just
14:25
grabbed
14:26
a crayon one up to the wall and started
14:28
scribbling or something
14:30
but actually when you look at his work
14:31
you realize there's a lot more to it
14:33
there's a lot more
14:34
meaning behind it and thought behind it
14:36
and
14:38
for me um after seeing this book i would
14:42
go and
14:42
you know not try and recreate his work
14:45
but i would be inspired by it and try
14:46
and make work like it
14:48
um i would go into the studio and just
14:50
try and draw just sit at paper
14:52
look at it just try and scribble and see
14:54
what i can create
14:55
and after doing that for a little while
14:57
i realized how
14:59
he created this process that evolved
15:02
over time and it
15:03
it allowed him to make something you
15:05
know that's as good as he is able to
15:07
make
15:08
um and when i saw these works that were
15:11
like
15:12
in museums and people were calling them
15:14
like childlike and
15:16
you know it's too easy it shouldn't be
15:18
in a museum
15:19
why you know what is this just blob of
15:22
scribbles doing
15:23
on like a 10 foot wide canvas just you
15:26
know in a really nice gallery like
15:28
to me that just was like you can't do
15:30
that and
15:31
when i when i read more about this book
15:33
and more about scituate i realized
15:36
like all of this stuff is kind of coming
15:39
full circle i'm realizing like
15:41
the imperfections that i'm creating are
15:43
what i'm striving for so when i go
15:45
into the studio i'm not looking to
15:47
create like a flat
15:49
you know super perfect image i'm looking
15:51
to create something with grit
15:53
something with texture something with
15:55
you know a feel to it even when you put
15:57
it on a computer
15:58
you can still see the depth of it see
16:01
the density and like
16:02
what it actually is whereas
16:06
before when i had started it was all
16:08
like
16:09
i started to realize these things but i
16:11
never was able to like piece them
16:12
together
16:13
um but now you know um
16:17
um this was when i was about probably 19
16:21
i started realizing that i was like
16:22
looking for these
16:23
imperfections because i was always just
16:26
like trying different things with film
16:28
and with screen printing and that's when
16:30
i realized like
16:32
there's this idea that i had about a
16:35
perfect imperfection and like
16:38
imperfections are to me what make
16:41
something
16:42
high quality or professional or really
16:44
good um
16:45
well i i take that with like a grain of
16:48
salt like imperfections aren't what
16:50
makes something professional but if it's
16:52
if it's the right imperfection then i
16:54
believe that it makes
16:55
you know something with
16:58
more it makes it more valuable that's
17:00
that's what i think so
17:02
once i started realizing like that
17:05
i was going for these imperfect
17:07
qualities and that it's
17:08
this idea of like a perfect imperfection
17:10
is what i was striving for
17:12
when i started experimenting a bunch
17:14
because
17:15
um i just wanted to see what i could
17:17
create see what you know
17:19
what could come out of it and i really i
17:22
was doing nothing at the time
17:24
other than working with filter grade in
17:26
school so i was like why not what else
17:27
do i have to lose
17:29
um so i would you know i started a bunch
17:32
of film
17:33
uh trying to like experiment with colors
17:35
and things like that
17:37
i've started um playing around with
17:39
expired film
17:40
you know anything that'll that'll be
17:43
able to make
17:43
my work more like
17:46
imperfect with these you know unique
17:50
traits to them things that other people
17:51
can't create and
17:52
you can always tell when it's you know
17:54
created in in post-production or
17:56
something else so
17:57
for me it's always really um
18:01
it's really important to have like a
18:03
good foundation with the production
18:05
aspect of it
18:06
i don't i think like for me i believe
18:08
that if you're like half-assing the
18:10
production value
18:12
you're gonna half-ass the
18:13
post-production and like the the final
18:15
output of it as well
18:17
i i kind of think that you need to like
18:20
be full circle with everything like if
18:23
i'm gonna spend the time to
18:24
take film photos and like
18:28
deliberately make them to be a certain
18:30
way i'm going to spend the time as well
18:32
on the post-production side you know
18:34
with the developing and scanning and
18:37
just processing in general
18:38
so that they come out exactly how i want
18:40
them to come out i'm
18:42
rather than you know letting somebody
18:43
else handle it and things like that so
18:46
and that's not a bash to anybody that
18:48
you know gets their film developed at a
18:50
lab because that is
18:51
a perfectly good way of developing it
18:53
for me it's more so about
18:55
the scanning and you know the
18:58
the process after i scan making it my
19:00
own image
19:01
so that i'm not doing what you know
19:04
production is more heavy than
19:06
post-corruption or post-russians more
19:07
heavy than production
19:08
if i'm going to spend the time shooting
19:11
film and making it look the way i want
19:12
to then i'm going to spend the time you
19:14
know on the
19:15
post-production side as well so
19:18
um that kind of brings a full circle for
19:21
me right now
19:22
uh i'm at this place in my
19:26
photography and like artistic career
19:28
where i've realized now
19:30
that i'm looking for these imperfect
19:32
qualities and for me
19:33
that's what makes my work perfect that's
19:36
my whole idea about
19:38
um the perfect imperfection
19:41
like people can scratch can strive to be
19:44
perfect and
19:46
you're never gonna be perfect perfect
19:49
and for me i can strive to be
19:52
perfect in with these imperfections and
19:55
at that same rate i could
19:57
it's never possible as well perfection
19:59
is never possible but
20:01
that that like drive for the and
20:04
the drive and the journey um along the
20:07
way
20:07
for the imperfect like perfect
20:10
whether it's in my artwork my paintings
20:12
my screen printing or
20:14
my photography no matter what it is i'm
20:15
always going to be looking for that
20:18
that that imperfection that sets my work
20:20
apart
20:21
and that's one of the main the main
20:24
things that i try and
20:25
you know put out with my work and try
20:27
and convey
20:28
and i you know i've been i've been
20:31
trying
20:32
new things for quite a while now and
20:35
if there's any you know questions you
20:37
have that i could help out with
20:39
just feel free to reach out in the
20:41
comments or reach out to me on instagram
20:44
at matt underscore maloney m-o-l-o-n-ey
20:49
but yeah that's that's pretty much my my
20:51
thoughts on
20:52
this whole idea of the perfect
20:54
imperfection i kind of want to just get
20:56
it out there put it on video
20:58
because i've had these thoughts in my
20:59
mind for a while now and
21:01
i realize i don't you know put my
21:03
thoughts on youtube enough
21:05
enough it's more so like i'll go and do
21:07
a how-to video
21:08
or or me shooting around town or
21:11
something like that and
21:12
i want to kind of make it so that i have
21:14
more of a dialogue and more of a
21:16
connection
21:17
with you and everybody else watching
21:20
so if you have any questions or any um
21:24
any comments or ideas about this idea of
21:26
a perfect imperfection
21:28
let me know what you think let me know
21:29
how you shoot and how you create your
21:32
your artwork but other than that thanks
21:34
so much thanks so much for watching
21:35
peace out
21:57
you