Matthew Williams talks to Ginny Fisher about his shock entry to New York’s photography scene, his 6m-high apartment ceiling and his go-to spots in the city.
Flashback to Brooklyn’s Redhook neighbourhood circa 1980, where New Zealand photographer Matthew Williams currently resides. On the streets, icecream trucks dealt crack, not soft
“Even the cops were afraid to come here,” says Matthew on a late-night crackly line from New York.
But one narcotics detective, Greg O’Connell, saw an opportunity where others saw skullduggery. O’Connell began buying up Red Hook real estate for a dime, purchasing his first building in 1967 for $22,000. Now he’s a real estate baron worth reportedly more than $400 million.
Matthew says O’Connell still owns most of the buildings in the neighbourhood, which is why it’s only rentals in Red Hook.
It’s a New York story, in one of its most burgeoning areas, where low-income housing projects become gentrified and rents skyrocket — Matthew says the average rent in the city is around $4000 a month, crippling for even the well-heeled.
Red Hook is another of Brooklyn’s fringe neighbourhoods that is transforming into a hipster playground, where crab shacks, organic bakeries and niche liquor stores abound, and remnants of the grim past fade at the edges.
It lured Matthew and his New York-born wife Allison Hirsch back in 2008 when they relocated from New Zealand. The couple met and fell in love in Auckland where Allison had been studying to be a behavioural psychologist. At the time Matthew already had an established career as a lifestyle photographer, shooting mostly architecture and interiors, but bright lights and familial ties beckoned.
The pair ended up in Brooklyn; eventually renting their current waterfront apartment in a warehouse building with handsome arched windows overlooking Lady Liberty at the mouth of the Hudson River.
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Advertise with NZME.The 40-apartment building on Conover St hosts a mix of ages, but Matthew says there are more creatives than most — artists, film-makers, politicians, actors.
“Michele Williams and Michael Shannon lived here until Covid. There are lots of families; most don’t lock their doors and kids fly between the homes and around the hallways.”
The building is a glowing example of civil war architecture circa 1860 — at the time Red Hook was a prosperous port and most of the buildings consisted of warehousing — hence the huge stud heights — around 6 metres.
The historical significance of the building means there are, on paper, strict rules relating to altering the interiors.
“You’re not supposed to mess with the walls, or even put in picture hooks, but most people do,” admits Matthew.
But apart from not butchering the walls with picture hooks, their biggest challenge was installing window coverings.
“No one sells 20ft curtains!”
Fortunately Matthew’s artist mother, Karin Montgomery, visited often from Auckland and happened to be handy with a sewing machine.
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Advertise with NZME.Once she’d whipped them up, the next problem was getting them to the windows.
“Every time we want to change a lightbulb or change the window coverings we have to hire a scaffold.”
Unsurprisingly Matthew and Allison agreed on the design solution of a low well when furnishing the apartment.
“It took me a while to get used to the feeling of lying on the bed and looking up to these high ceilings, so in the living areas we wanted to create a low presence of furniture, art and lighting.”
Even though plenty of natural light floods the living room from the west-facing expansive windows, Allison, who Matthew says has a fantastic eye for design, sourced an array of light fittings to drop down into the space, including the pendants over the dining table from Graypants, that are made from recycled cardboard and lend a warm glow to the area.
The striking fluorescent wall lights were inspired by the late American artist Dan Flavin, who was a pioneer of minimalism and best known for his light installations of commercial fluorescent bulbs in geometric compositions.
“We picked them up at the local hardware store and arranged them to give balance to the space,” explains Matthew.
All the lighting in the apartment is either from down low, to the side, or soft pendants.
“I don’t believe in overhead recessed — it’s very harsh, like unflattering midday light — and it creates racoon eyes; I prefer lighting that emulates dawn and dusk, which is warm and flattering. You’ll notice on film sets, most of the lighting is from the side, it’s far more emotive.”
In response to vast amounts of wall space, and little budget for large artworks, Allison made a wire installation to wrap around the apartment walls.
A friend from New Zealand, Kentaro Kamada, designed the geometric shapes which the couple then projected on to the wall digitally before embarking on installing the wires on to nails to create the design.
“I think all up it cost us $50.”
Matthew’s photography peppers the walls too — the Huka Falls print over the bed complements the warm brick wall and the two large-scale conceptual photographs titled Take Me There envision the future with beams of light, adding a minimalist touch to the naturally inspired interiors that flourish with greenery from various house plants.
His sprawling photowall is a nostalgic reminder of family and the birth of his daughter Origin, now 9, and the halcyon days of bar-hopping in New York before parenting took priority.
“I like the idea of a photograph becoming a real thing, also I have a terrible memory, so I guess it’s an external visual hard drive of our lives together.”
The blue portrait in the living room was a commission in early 2000 by New Zealand artist Sam Mitchell and is a treasured piece for the pair, while hints of New Zealand memorabilia are dotted about and provide conversation starters for their American guests.
“Everyone in the States is fascinated by New Zealand and it’s still a huge presence in my life. Every three years when we return home, that feeling of getting off the plane and smelling the trees and the sea, you don’t forget that. My wife and daughter Origin love it there too — just the little things like a day at the beach, it’s magical.”
Although New Zealand will always be home for Matthew, it’s here, in the competitive city of New York he has chosen to forge out a career in photography.
“It was a shocking and brutal transition moving to New York. I arrived with wide eyes and I had little idea how to make it. I’d done well in NZ and the UK, but people here think of any other city like playtown.”
Matthew spent the first year cold-calling potential clients. It was always the same response.
“Nice work, but no.”
His tenacity paid off and eventually he got a job shooting editorial with Dwell Magazine and the work built slowly from there.
“New York hollowed me out, then built me up from nothing. I am so grateful to Allison who supported me through those first couple of years, both financially and through the roller coaster of starting a photography career in New York.”
His reputation is now well established with illustrious editorial clients such as Architectural Digest, Vogue Spain, and British and Italian Elle Decor. Heavyweight advertising clients include Google, Apple and Samsung and architectural and interior design clients like The Brooklyn Home Company, Workstead, and General Assembly.
Matthew has also worked on books for Remodelista, Gardenista and one of his favourite New York designers, Workstead.
While editorial clients once paid the bills, these jobs now only make up 10 per cent of his work — with the majority of his commissions these days coming from advertising and directly with architectural or interior design firms.
“Magazines aren’t making the money they once did, so I work directly with designers who now speak directly with the public.”
His New York-based photo agent, Art Department, is one of the best in the business and he is represented alongside photography heavyweights like Ben Watts and David Prince.
Matthew’s photographic hallmark is his natural approach; that translates to more often than not, shooting with natural light. He’s a bit of an anomaly in this age of gadgetry, using only two lenses and a couple of cameras including his workhorse Nikon D850 full frame DSLR digital camera.
If he is required to use lighting on advertising jobs, he’ll choose a large continuous light over strobe lights for a natural, cinematic effect.
“A few clients have looked a bit concerned when I turn up with just a small camera bag,” he quips.
A decent portion of Matthew’s work is interior-based, with plenty of local restaurant and bar fit-outs, hence he’s exposed to a wide array of design aesthetics and plenty of jaw-dropping eateries and watering holes.
At the moment he’s observing a continuation of an earthy aesthetic, but he says he’s not one to take inspiration from trends.
“I’m mostly inspired by fashion and music.”
And, of course, the streets of New York.
“I always have a camera with me. There’s never a dull day in New York, every time I step out the door, it inspires me, even now I still get the feeling I’m on a movie set.”
He says his work is always evolving to remain fresh and on point.
“The flip side of having a good reputation is how to stay up there.”
Matthew’s NYC Hit List
Where to eat, drink and play through a photographer’s lens.
EAT AND DRINK
• Lunch at La Mercerie.
• Dinner and drinks at the Hotel Chelsea. It’s as alive and as cool as ever.
• El Quijote.
• Drinks at Lobby bar.
• For a special night, Veronika.
• For a New York experience, Sunnies bar in Red Hook is one of the oldest bars in New York. It’s an old longshoreman’s watering hole and dive bars like these are the beating heart of the city.
SEE
• Fotografiska, a spectacular photography gallery housed in the building that featured in Inventing Anna, the Anna Delvey Netflix series — the one she tried to buy.
• Pioneer Works — a hidden gem in Red Hook.
• Workstead designer showroom.
• The Future Perfect showroom in a brownstone in the city.
• Roll and Hill showroom in Manhattan.
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How David Howell Is Reconstructing New York. The New Zealand architect has made a career transforming high-end apartments in the Big Apple.
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