today, july 29th, 2022, marks the release of my good friend matt nathanson’s new album, boston accent.
i feel like we’re still kind of moving through the molasses of pandemic time, as this photo was actually shot in june of 2021. [in fact, i have a lot to post from the past pandemic years, and am slowly gearing up to do so]. as matt himself has noted, this is a big deal for him insofar as album artwork goes. he’s someone who has never really liked looking directly into the camera. the fact that this album cover is him, alone, confronting the viewer/listener directly, without any type whatsoever, is really remarkable. as a photographer, i couldn’t be more grateful and pleased.
matt was, arguably, one of my very first photo subjects. we went to college together. he was a year ahead of me, and he was the very first person i met when i arrived on campus. when i started taking photo classes he was always the first to volunteer to help me with whatever silly thing was required to get the homework done. i’ve shot him countless times over countless years. actually, we could count the years, but let’s not. suffice to say that my personal history and my personal history as a photographer has always been very much intertwined with matt, and pointing a camera at him over those early years was very foundational and important to me.
go give the album a listen and throw your money at it. it’s good stuff.
the actual cover is below with the designer’s moire overlay:
