Croeso – Welcome…

My name is Matt Cook.

I'm a lens based artist and musician based in south Wales, UK. My love for beautiful places draws me to explore and discover them anew. My work has taken me around the world, and I have been blessed to experience, witness and capture many exceptional environments and locations.

I revel in the processes of creativity, and make my art with photography, video and music. This site is a portfolio of my work to-date. It is a celebration, to share with you the incredible universe in which we all live.

Feel free to explore the site at your leisure. Each photograph or video has information which will appear when you hover over it. On a mobile device, hit the small, white dot in the right-hand corner.

If you want to commission, purchase, collaborate, ask a question, or just say hello, then feel free to contact me. Follow me on social media to keep up-to-date with what I’m taking, making and creating…

Thoughts on Creativity

All creativity is a journey – into experiences and understanding. It is a journey of development – the honing of skills through practice, reflection and application. It is a journey of questioning – asking who we are and why we do what we do.

I look and seek to capture a place, a feeling or an interaction – to share experiences with others through my work. I become immersed in creative processes which capture my being and compel me to grapple with the tools of my creativity.

Sometimes, my work is a response to unfolding moments before me e,g, changing light or serendipity. Other work has originated as an idea that I have then gone on to research, plan and create, sometimes stage. I suppose in relation to photography this is the difference between taking and making a picture, two very different approaches to the medium.

The creation of this website has itself raised a persistent question about my own motivations, to which I have kept returning – why?

For some time, my interest focused only upon the immediacy of producing pictures, videos or songs. I had no real desire to reveal anything more. The creative process itself was sufficient fulfillment for me – I had no desire for ‘fame’ nor ‘fortune’. But I’ve come to see that we live connected lives – we’re not alone. So, as I’ve reflected on that persistent question – why? – I’ve become more aware of how I share myself with wider audiences – those who view the art that I make.

My reflections have revealed how I have been moved, inspired and profoundly changed by inspirational art, literature, film and music. I feel indebted to those artists, writers and musicians who have chosen to share their work with our wider world. I have consequently come to realise that if any of us have made something, it is meaningful to share it. If any of us have learned something, it is beneficial to teach it.

Goethe expressed it well;

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back… Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth that ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”

Therefore, go, enjoy the world – the people and places in it. Discover what you are passionate about and pursue it. Enrich your own life and the lives of others…

Perspective

The relationship between objects in space depending on the place from which you view them.

The way in which we choose to view the world depending on our own individual outlook and experiences.

"Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen, and thinking what nobody has thought."  - Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” - William Morris

“The world's big and I want to have a good look at it before it gets dark.” - John Muir

"We don't stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw