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| © Matt Eich |
| Clayton Ator riles up Shank and Money after getting stoned. |
Age: 21
Location: Athens, Ohio
Website: matteichphoto.com
"Some of my photo stories sprang out of class projects. But the connections I've been able to make with people there have lasted beyond the story and the class."
When Matt Eich began working on projects for his photojournalism classes at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, he was determined to step outside his comfort zone. "A lot of people who come to school at Athens aren't aware of things outside their bubble," he says -- things like the entrenched rural poverty that hovers at the edges of the idyllic little college town.
Eich's main color series -- an essay on Athens, the surrounding towns, and the people who call them home -- began as the photo student wandered around the town of Chauncey, approaching houses that looked interesting. "People don't like that door-to-door salesman approach," Eich quickly learned. Then one day he met a young man at a car wash washing the dirt off his kids' bikes. They started talking, and Eich was invited back to the house to take more pictures. The man's twin daughters were recently flower girls in Eich's wedding.
"Some of my [photographic] stories sprang out of class projects," Eich explains. "But a lot of the connections that I've been able to make with people there have lasted beyond the story and the class."
Now in his senior year at O.U., Eich plans to work on the project until he graduates, and he's already been shooting editorial work for Fader, HotShoe in London, and the Oregonian in Portland. Eich was named College Photographer of the Year in 2006 by the Missouri School of Journalism, and in 2005 he won the $10,000 Nikon Achievement Scholarship at the Eddie Adams Workshop.
Eich says he'd like to continue freelancing and covering social issues such as rural poverty. But he is practical and recognizes that editorial freelance work may never completely support him and his new wife. "I'll probably have to settle down and get a job with a steady paycheck for a while," he admits.
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