Hi there!
My name’s Ion Mateș but I hate sharing my name with that novel so call me Johnny.
I’m a photographer and often a journalist. I never liked putting a stamp on myself because I’ve always approached photography in its entireness. I doubt there’s a technique of format I haven’t had a look at. Born in Bucharest, Romania, at about 18 I found an unusual attraction to the idea of saving memories as images.
Thus I bought a camera and started to shoot anything that made my eye. At first everything was a bit fuzzy in my head and my pictures hardly spoke of a common subject but over time I started understanding some things and that was enough for me to decide I didn’t want to do anything else ever again.
After high school I delved deeper by spending the next years studying Visual Communication at the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design even though simultaneously I was the voluntary photo editor of Teen Press. I found a certain satisfaction in documenting landscapes and events which is why I continued with an MA in Online Journalism at the same university.
Capturing the moment and saving it has always incited me, somehow photos get better with time. I always carry a camera and I see scenes like a photo journalist. And yes, I shoot film!
But how about I let the pictures do the talking?