Megan Koeppel Interviews Lars Mattingly
Lars Mattingly (he/they/she) (b. 2000, TN) is an artist living and working in Richmond, Virginia, where he is pursuing his MFA in Photography + Film at Virginia Commonwealth University. They hold their BA (2023) from Sewanee: The University of the South, where they were awarded the Peter V. Guarisco Merit Scholarship in Art. She has exhibited at the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University and had a recent solo show at the Carlos Gallery in Sewanee, TN. Lars was a 2023 selected attendee at the Chico Review.
MK: When you first started taking pictures, what people or places were you drawn to capturing?
LM: I have always been most drawn to portraiture, tying back to my interests in anthropology, which I started studying in undergrad. I’m a very social person and like to connect with people; I see photography as a way to do that. In college I photographed my friends and my mom because she was in the town where I went to school.
MK: Tell me about your current body of work.
LM: This is a series of 14 platinum palladium prints of photographs I took over the two years I’ve lived in Richmond. They include self-portraits, portraits of my mom and of my partner. One of my main explorations in creating these photos is the word intimacy and what that means while portraying my closest relationships. I see these photos as a navigation of queerness and intimate relationships as I learn about my own identity, and see myself reflected in who I love and who love me the most.
This project started as a Polaroid project. When I moved to Richmond, I immediately met my now husband, and started taking photos of him on a mini PolaroidGo camera. It didn’t feel like I was making work, I was just taking photos for the sake of being in the moment with another person. I continued this by only focusing on instant photography of the same person. He would take photos of me in return. We had this reciprocal vulnerability in the daily practice of photographing each other for the first year of our relationship.
After the first year of graduate school I felt like I could slow down. My photography reflected the relationship between my partner and I. After the first year I went back to medium and large format photography. At a certain point I was able to step back and realize that while the work I was making was informed by my relationship, it was more about the significance, as a nonbinary trans person with a history of sexual trauma, of the celebration of the layers of our partnership that allowed me to learn more about myself.
MK: I’m wondering about these images that include the natural environment, because the work is so rooted in portraiture. Could you talk about your choice to include images of the natural world?
LM: I’ve always loved the outdoors and see nature as a place that doesn’t hold bias, and a place I can freely exist in. As I navigate my own gender identity I keep returning to nature in the same way I return to who I photograph. Nature feels like a neutral place to exist. I think it’s important to assert your place as a queer person in interior spaces as well as outside in the natural world.
MK: Do you feel like asserting yourself in the natural world feels safe, because as you said, nature doesn’t hold a bias? Or do you still feel a real risk claiming space in nature?
LM: I think it is risky, but I also think that’s an important part of being vulnerable. Connecting with yourself and others unfortunately involves some element of surrendering to that risk.
MK: There is a photo in your current body of work of someone holding two seeding stage dandelions in a field, with the flowers touching. Would you tell me more about this image?
LM: This one is part of the series but not part of my upcoming exhibition. I wanted to keep this photo to myself because it feels scary to show to people. To me, this work is about sensuality and connection, and how fragile these moments are.
LM: I took this on a Hasselblad camera, which is a medium format film camera that requires a lot of time to set up and stillness when taking a picture. It was a windy day, so this was a difficult photo to capture. While taking this photo I was thinking about my relationship to intimacy.
MK: Is writing typically part of your photography practice?
LM: As an undergraduate student I was focused on producing images, but now writing is central to my photography. For the thesis show I put together a booklet of poetry I’ve written over the past two years along with the prints. There is only one booklet in the gallery, so people can take a minute to sit and read while looking at the work.
MK: What sparked your interest in writing more and pairing that with your work?
LM: Before I moved to Richmond I changed my name, and once I settled into a new apartment I got a letter in the mail from my dad that started with “Dear Lars”. I’ve always written letters; my best friend of 20+ years and I still write letters back and forth. During the birth of my current photography series I thought of the work as a visual “hello” letter to a new self. Letter writing has played an important role in inspiring me to take photos, mostly inspired by the letter I received from my dad.
MK: Do you write in response to your photographs and vice versa or are they separate processes?
LM: As an overthinker I journal a lot. I grew up without tv or electronics so I have always been an avid reader. The writing and photos are independent of one another. The writing is a more direct reflection of what I think and the photographs are a more subliminal version of what I think, more emotional. The words and images come together in my studio. A large part of my practice is sequencing and editing, which is a similar process for editing writing.
MK: What is one of the most important books for you in relation to your photography?
LM: One of the most important books above others for me is the book Bluets, a collection of poetry by Maggie Nelson. My photos are currently in black and white, but I find the color blue to be so inspiring. It was an important part of my undergraduate thesis work, and I see my current work as a continuation of that. There is a layer of that color in the work even with the prints being monochromatic.
MK: Who is a mentor you look up to and why?
LM: I look up to my undergraduate professor, Pradip Malde. To know him is to feel seen and challenged, constantly. He prioritizes spending time with others and teaches with the same level of care for every one of his students, which is inspiring as someone who wants to pursue teaching.
MK: How have you defined success for yourself as an artist?
LM: In the past I was focused on solo exhibitions and awards, getting my work out there, thinking that making it as an artist means exposure and commercial success. Then I had an experience at VCU after giving a Pecha Kucha where a trans-identifying child came up to me and told me they had not seen themselves represented like this in art before. That was really impactful and changed the way I considered what success meant for me. I think it has a lot more to do with success as a person. Be a person first and build relationships through community and shared experience. I’m less driven by more traditional definitions of success or influence in the art world. I’m living and making work focused on finding and supporting my queer community.
