Matthew Thorne
Matthew Thorne was born (.1993) and grew up in Adelaide, South Australia, an almost midwest american city of neatly manicured colonialism, flat arid suburbia, and half-forgotten industrial heartland. A landscape of asphalt carparks, and dirt roadways plastered over sacred land.
Matthew’s work is focused around people and their relationship to their community, their land, their rituals, and their work and is often drawn from that spiritual, surreal landscape of Australia.
Matthew is currently living and working between Berlin, Germany & Australia, developing a feature film, and growing his collection of half-read books.
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Recent work includes Marungka Tjalantananyi (Dipped in Black) a film and photographic project created with Yankunytjatjara artist Derik Lynch that explores his childhood growing up in the central Australian desert. The film is funded by the South Australian Film Corporation and the Adelaide Film Festival.
The Sand That Ate The Sea, a film and photographic project that tells the story of the land, community, and mysticism of Andamooka an Opal mining town in South Australia through the story of a son losing his father in a cyclical once in a generation storm.
Photos for Nick Cave and the Badseed’s album Ghosteen, photography and additional second unit Direction on Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant, photography on Justin Kurzel’s film True History of The Kelly Gang.
Matthew has published two photo books, Jingo Was Born In The Slum (2021) a collection of essays, photos and poems made during Justin Kurzel’s retelling of the Kelly myth, published by Jane & Jeremy (Brighton, UK) and For My Father (2018) a series of photos taken in Japan with my Father the month before he unexpectedly passed away, published by Palm*, (London, UK). His photos also accompany the Spanish language translation of Kenneth Cook’s iconic Australian novel Wake In Fright by Sajalín Editors, Barcelona.
Matthew’s work is in collection and/or has been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery of Australia (2021), National Portrait Gallery London (2020), National Museum of Australia (2020), Art Gallery of South Australia (2020), National Library of Australia (2019), Perth Centre for Photography (2019), and the Melbourne Centre for Contemporary Photography (2019/20/21).
His films and photography have been nominated and awarded at the Australian Directors Guild Awards, Perth International Film Festival, Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize (UK), Australian National Portrait Prize, Australian Photography Awards, and the Young Director Award, Cannes Lions (France).