Meet Matt Lerer | Fine Art Pholtographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Matt Lerer and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Matt, career-wise, where do you want to be in the end?
I would like to be exactly where I am now in my career but on a larger scale. The most important thing to me as far as my work is to see the joy on the faces of people who see the creativity in my shots. Seeing faces light up, mouths open, gasps, and the occasional tear flowing absolutely does it for me.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I can’t say that anything really sets me apart from others as far as fine art photographers go. There are so many amazing creative people out there and I am mesmerized just looking at the work of other photographers. I had a conversation with my brother Ken about selling my work and he gave me great advice when he said, “go all in”! This is what I did from the very beginning and I think I was lucky because I can honestly say from day one it has been pretty easy. My expectations are always made because I just need to make one person happy when I’m showing my work and that has always been the case. Everybody in the industry who knows me well is aware that the most important thing to me is to see people smile when they look at my work. Everything after that is simply a bonus and more importantly a gift.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
This is a tough one for me because I live with panic attacks. Those who are close to me know this and those who are not close to me don’t understand it and may be confused by it. If my best friend was visiting they would know there would pretty much be no eating out or going to crowded places. It’s interesting because I’m extremely comfortable showing my work in art fest scenarios but uncomfortable showing my work in a gallery type setting if I have to be present. This has been a lifelong struggle and I think I’m getting a little better at it but I also can put on a pretty good act. Shhh…it’s a secret, so don’t tell anybody.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would say my father deserves a lot of credit for me being where I am today in the world of fine art photography. From a young age he saw something in me that I couldn’t see and he encouraged me to keep taking photographs. It took a while but I finally got the idea of what he saw. It’s taken me a long time to realize that I am actually pretty good at what I do so thank you dad for believing in me and for always being my main inspiration!