By: Vita Duva
Posted In: News
Photo credit: Vita Duva
Matthew Clowney currently teaches Photography I and II at Salve.
A four-year-old boy is assisting his mother at their local church nursery in Atlanta, Georgia.
Suddenly, he screams from the top of his little lungs, as a two-year-old baby sinks a mouthful of teeth onto the boy’s finger. His mother, watching the rescue of her son, recalls his tear-filled eyes from memory unto this very day. Thinking not only of his own pain, the boy refused to yank his finger back to his solitary possession in fear of hurting the little one. This boy grew to be Matthew Edmund Clowney-a genuine and caring soul.
Clowney is lucky to have avoided the dangers of an amputated finger 36 years prior to the present day, as his hands play a fundamental role within his day-to-day life. Clowney started working at Salve Regina University as an adjunct photography instructor in the fall of 2008.
He first heard of the job opening at Salve through a friend of a friend. Clowney instantly connected with Barbara Shamblin, head of undergraduate arts. The two often swap advice about photography.
“Matthew is an extremely dedicated and dynamic teacher,” Shamblin said. “He pushes students to reach as far as they can in their creative inquiries.”
Salve students are increasingly flocking to Clowney’s classes, as he never ceases to devote a generous amount of time to the needs of his students. This semester, he is teaching both a Photography I and a Photography II class.
Clowney executes ample technical demonstrations, which provide his students not only with instruction, but the hands-on experience of how to take and print photographs. He also offers PowerPoint lectures on professional photographers who are relevant to his students’ work. In addition, Clowney allows plenty of time for bi-weekly critiques, which are chances for his students to present their final artwork in front of the entire class. He guides his students through open, thought-provoking, frank discussions.
Ultimately, his students feel free to speak honestly, critiquing both their own work and their fellow classmates’ work. Students come to express their quandaries and victories with regard to a particular assignment. They can then go back and develop their strengths, while improving on their weaknesses in a particular area.
Clowney also works as an adjunct faculty member at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) teaching photography. He took this position in the fall of 2009.
“My students at RISD and at Salve are very different,” Clowney said. “Teaching students from many different fields of study, as opposed to strictly teaching art students, which can tend to be more homogeneous, is something that I love about teaching here. I get to glimpse the world through students’ different perspectives. It has been a very rich experience and I am very grateful for it.”
Born outside of Philadelphia, Penn., Clowney spent most of his childhood moving around. His father was a Presbyterian Minister, and the Clowney family moved 13 times over 15 years, until finally settling back down in Philadelphia when Clowney was eight years old. The family has remained stationary ever since.
“I was able to take it as a chance to start over, which has been a blessing,” Clowney said. “It plays a critical role in my life today in terms of being able to move on and let go.”
However, Clowney’s journey was far from over. He attended four different high schools in the Philadelphia area before finally graduating early at age 16 from Philadelphia Montgomery Christian Academy.
He then attended Calvin College, a Christian, liberal arts school in Grand Rapids, Mich. He started out as a mathematics major, later switching over to communications. Subsequently, he transferred over to the University of the Arts in Philadelphia (UOTA), where he finally found his niche in photography.
After graduating from UOTA in 1995, Clowney moved to New York and took a job as a photography assistant, where he helped photographers in the field build their careers.
“One of the most influential photographers that I worked with was Tina Barney,” Clowney said. “She just now published a book entitled, ‘Players.’ It’s great. I get to see images that I helped to work on, while getting a little acknowledgement for it in the back of the book.”
Going forward, Clowney jumped around some more, mostly finding temporary, freelance work wherever possible in order to fill the gaps. He headed to graduate school in Providence, R.I. in 2006. He graduated two years later with a Master of Fine Arts in photography from RISD.
“You make tons of money one month, no money the next, and it can be kind of rough,” Clowney said. “I got tired of the grind and irregularity of freelance work; it was lousy. I always knew I wanted to teach.”
However, Clowney understands that he can both create and teach, as he routinely works on his own professional photography. His forte is group and family portraits. Clowney works closely with “atypical” groups and families, as apposed to what one may consider “archetypal” of a group and/or family. For example, Clowney’s images reveal the raw, yet beautiful dynamics of inter-racial families, same-sex partners, unmarried lovers and single mothers. In addition, his work today originally stems from his thesis work while studying at RISD. Check out www.matthewclowney.com to learn more about his recent project.
“I am interested in portraying the beautiful, complex, muddy, and imperfect nature of family life,” Clowney said.
In terms of his own family, Clowney’s mother is a painter. As a mother-son duo, they relate fully to one another. They also understand the effort that goes into creating images and they support one another constantly. The two artists talk on the phone often.
“We actually see in a similar way,” Clowney’s mother said. “Looking at his work and mine, we notice light, value, contrast and composition as if we were sharing the same eyeballs.”
Although Clowney is most often seen carrying around his camera, his personal interests outside of photography stem in a multitude of directions. He loves flying kites. He enjoys skiing, although he wishes he had time to go more often. He is both a movie and political enthusiast.
Chuckling, Clowney adds, “If I weren’t doing photography, I would maybe be in politics. It’s a love – hate thing.”
Having had cats for most of his life, it is no wonder that he is more than just a cat lover, but “cat obsessed.” His two cats, Emily and Alice, even have their own Facebook pages.
“Emily is the love of my life,” said Clowney. “Then there’s Tracy, my current girlfriend; a marvelous singer and songwriter. Then there is Alice; she is awful – the world’s worst pet, but I love her anyway.”
Tracy, however, is not a feline. Clowney has also hilariously dubbed his cats, “The Doublewide Calicos.”
Clowney’s future plans are still uncertain. He is currently in the process of applying for full-time jobs outside of Salve.
“I will definitely still be teaching photography, probably in Rhode Island, but I could really end up anywhere,” he said.
Perhaps, that “anywhere” will one day be Ireland, as Clowney expressed his keen interest in exploring the pubs and the green rolling hills. Or even, perhaps Australia or New Zealand, two other destinations on Clowney’s bucket list. Of course, none of this would ever be plausible without Clowney’s camera cradled in his hands.
