Matthew Fertel​​​​

In Search of the Secret Chord#

Japanese Winter#

Artist’s Statement#

My work focuses on exposing the unseen beauty in the everyday objects we all encounter in our daily lives. Small details get framed in ways that draw attention away from the actual object and focus on the shapes, textures, and colors, transforming them into abstract landscapes, figures, and faces. I aim to use these out-of-context images to create compositions that encourage an implied narrative easily influenced by the viewer and open to multiple interpretations.

Both photographs are from my Waste Management series, which consists of compositions created from details of dumpsters, trash cans and other refuse / recycling / green waste receptacles.

In Search Of The Secret Chord was created from a detail of a dumpster behind a locked fence on a job site that I walked by on a near-daily basis for over a year. I usually photograph my subjects under different lighting and weather conditions over days, months, or years, but this dumpster was inaccessible. As the job was concluding, the fence was left unlocked one day and I was able to capture this image. The title is a reference to a Frank Zappa song.

Japanese Winter was discovered on a dumpster enclosure in a shopping center that I visit every six months when I take my car in for an oil change. The barren twigs and the pale blue color are reminiscent of the Japanese woodblock prints I used to photograph when I worked at an auction house, hence the title.

About the Artist#

Matthew Fertel is a Sacramento-based photographer who has worked at Sierra College since 2004. Before that, he was a fine art auction house catalog photographer in San Francisco for over ten years. Find him online at mfertel.wixsite.com and on Instagram @digprod4.