Matthew Pillsbury

(Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, 1973 - )

American, born France

Matthew Pillsbury graduated cum laude from Yale University in 1995 and received his MFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2004. In 2007, he was awarded the Fondation HSBC pour la Photographie award in France, and is also a recipient of the 2014 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship. In 2013, Pillsbury published his monograph City Stages with Aperture. His work is represented in numerous permanent collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Guggenheim Museum, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Musée du Louvre, Paris; and many others.
A central theme of Matthew Pillsbury's photography is investigating the myriad ways humans fill both space and time. Using long exposures to create visual narratives of an indeterminate period, Pillsbury offers a way of representing the world that is only possible throughphotography. Concentrating on the relationship between space, time, and technology, his work depicts the physical spaces people occupy and pass through, without committing to a single traditional photographic moment.
Often using exposures exceeding one hour, Pillsbury's photographs render buildings and other stationary objects as solid, enduring entities, fixed and stable, whereas objects in motion, including pedestrians and traffic, appear as transparent incorporeal apparitions, in flux and impermanent. Each image thus captures the movement of a sequence of moments, stretched across a singular spatial canvas. Pillsbury’s techniques and compositions are strongly influenced by the work of Hiroshi Sugimoto and Abelardo Morell, who are both represented in the Akron Art Museum’s collection. 

New York, New York

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