We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Matthew T Rader a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Matthew T, thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

One of the most meaningful projects I’ve worked on is a 7-year project that documents the rapid changes caused by gentrification in a Dallas neighborhood called Old East Dallas. I shot this entire project on medium format analog film, this required me to be very thoughtful about each photo I took. Sometimes I would spend hours walking around looking for the right photo.

I start this project because I couldn’t believe how fast things were changing right before my eyes. I lived in the area and really appreciated its character and diverse atmosphere. Just within a few years of living there, houses and businesses were being torn down and replaced with rows of townhouses.

When I first started the project, I took photos of everything I thought would relate to the concept such as people, storefronts, street scenes, houses, and other interesting sights. Eventually, over time, my project matured and began to focus on the changes happening to and around single-family homes. I felt the homes represented the character and people of the neighborhood well while giving the project a clear and relatable focal point.

The process of gentrification I was witnessing resonated deeply within me. As I got older I saw the changes in my life and how my youth was gradually fading and being replaced by people born after me. I began to see gentrification the same way I saw aging, an overwhelming force of change that I’m powerless against.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I’m an art and street phtographer based out of Dallas. The Photography I make explores and documents unique people and places around the world and the U.S. with a focus on Dallas, Texas. Dallas is the focus because that’s where I live and I tend to photograph whatever is closest to me at any given moment.

My photos are usually either street, landscape, cityscape, portrait, urban exploration, and travel photography. Sometimes, a single photo will contain several of these styles.

The goal of my photography is to relate an experience, a vision, or a narrative to the viewer. To share something with everyone I thought was interesting or beautiful or odd. To hopefully help people see the world through eyes other than their own and to contribute to creating more awareness of the amazing world we live in.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

One of the biggest lessons I had to unlearn was if people aren’t responding much to your photos on social media that means they aren’t very good. When I took photos I loved and shared them, often they would not get much notice. So start to change how I took photos and would take ones I thought people wanted to see. That actually worked to a degree except that I was no longer feeling connected to my art. So I deleted the accounts that were influencing my art like that and began to post photos to my blog. There I’ve had a free space to share what I want and not worry about what others think. Through my blog, I have met some awesome people that truly appreciate my art.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I would say the primary mission that drives my creativity is the desire to be creative while also challenging people’s assumptions about a particular subject or idea. People have often told me I think very differently and I like to try to make that apparent through my photography.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://matthewtrader.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewthomasrader/
• Twitter: @matthew_t_rader

Image Credits
Matthew T Rader