Matt Nettheim, our recent guest on EP57 of The Camera Life Podcast, is a former portrait photographer who shot stills for the film industry. He was born in England in 1969 before migrating to Sydney, Australia, with his mother Margot, a teacher, and his father Garth, a law professor and human rights campaigner.
As a young man, Matt moved to Adelaide, South Australia, in 1984, where he studied fine arts and later completed a B.A. in Fine Art-Photography at Melbourne’s Victoria College. Armed with a creative passion and learned knowledge, Matt entered the workforce as a photojournalist in Sydney with The Australian newspaper. Throughout his professional career, Matt has explored almost every genre of photography and has exhibited his documentary-style work on numerous occasions. However, the film industry called upon Matt’s photojournalistic approach to document countless film projects over the years.
Matt’s creative brother, Daniel Nettheim, is a film director with an impressive folio of film and TV shows, including The Hunter, The Tourist, and Doctor Who. Daniel and fellow director Rolf de Heer encouraged Matt to work within the film and television industry as a stills photographer. In 1999, Matt was employed by Phillip Noyce for the films Rabbit Proof Fence and The Quiet American. He has also worked on Australian films like Somersault, Little Fish, Look Both Ways, Jindabyne, Bran Nue Dae, The Eye of the Storm, and The Hunter. As for international projects, Matt has graced the sets of Hot Fuzz, Where the Wild Things Are, and Attack the Block.
In 2011, Matt became the first of two Australians to be accepted into the Society of Motion Picture Stills Photographers. Other achievements include Matt’s published book, Portraits. The book is a collection of photographs featuring Matt Nettheim's favourite portraits from his 30-year career as a social documentary and film stills photographer. Edited and compiled by Matt himself, the book contains an introduction by film director Rolf De Heer and includes technical data and anecdotes alongside many of the images.
In recent years, Matt has chosen to focus on his other crafts, including street performance, yoga teaching, and basket weaving. While Matt is working less in the film stills genre, he was part of the Starstruck exhibition at the Adelaide Film Festival. The exhibition, curated by The National Portrait Gallery, opened in Adelaide as part of its broader Australian tour. Showcasing portrait photography in Australian film, twelve of Matt’s images from his extensive career were on display. One of Matt’s images was also featured as the exhibition’s program cover. Given the prominence of Matt’s work, he participated in a rare Q&A event to further support the show.
Photography has been Matt's 30-year career and a craft that he has thoroughly loved. While it was his career, Matt has stepped back from making a living with his camera. Matt has worked with film and digital cameras; however, when pressed, he claimed that the Nikon F3, his first good camera, was his favourite. Matt has worked even with Hasselblad film cameras and fondly recalled how impressive using them felt. These days, Matt is very attached to his Sony a7R camera and kit of prime lenses, including a 28mm f/2, 55mm f/1.8, and an 85mm f/1.8. He has found that he prefers primes over more prominent and heavier zooms.
If you’re unfamiliar with The Camera Life Podcast, be sure to take a look at our YouTube channel for the latest episodes and, of course, our back catalogue of weekly shows. Our shows are also available on popular audio podcast platforms. If you like what you see, please give us a thumbs up, subscribe to The Camera Life, and click on the bell icon to receive notifications of upcoming shows. We host two shows weekly, the first being every Thursday at 9am AEDT (Australia), where we interview guests like Matt. The second show, The Random Photography Show, airs every Monday at 7:30 pm AEDT. The Random Photography show is a little random, a little loose, and a lot of fun! Be sure to check them out.
Website: https://mattnettheim.com/
Book: https://au.blurb.com/b/11081918-portraits-matt-nettheim
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@mnettheim
