Tommy Matthews is an interdisciplinary artist who has been teaching the last ten years at Lesley Art & Design University in Cambridge, MA in the departments of foundation honors, integrated media and photography. He teaches a variety of curriculum including alternative historical photographic processes, digital imaging, and interdisciplinary studio practice. His work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions and publications across the United States and Europe. Tommy has received numerous awards and recognition for his work including the New Orleans Photo Alliance finalist selection for the Clarence John Laughlin Award, the Ruth Bernhard Award, and most recently was selected as a 2024 Photo Lucida Critical Mass Finalist.

He received his BFA from Western Oregon University in sculpture and photography and his MFA from the Art Institute of Boston in Photography. He has worked for both the Ansel Adams Workshops and the Christopher James Workshops where he developed the foundation for his vocation as an educator and practitioner of darkroom printing methodologies and historical photographic processes.

Tommy’s personal studio practice involves an enlarger, printing press, etching tank and UV box. He is currently Investigating the ways in which drawing, photography, and printmaking can be merged to create singular prints with a layered visual language of the real and the imagined.

The subject matter of his work is wild and urban spaces, nocturnal narratives, epilepsy, brotherhood, familial histories, and collective memory.

He is from Seattle, Washington and currently lives with his family in Providence, Rhode Island where his studio is located.