By Christine Carpio
Tucked away on a beautiful rural area in Birmingham, Alabama, Matt Mathews gave me a tour of this stunning location and showed me his morning routine of feeding the wide array of animals he has on the farm.
Aside from the hustle and bustle of taking care of critters on the ranch, Matt owns a boudoir photography business where he helps women feel amazing in their own skin and see themselves through the lens in which others view them. His photography has not only been a successful business, it has also allowed him to touch the lives of others around him.
Although Matt has found success through his creativity, the road for him wasn’t all that easy. I sat down with him as he shared his story of tragedy, triumph, and self-love.
Born into a loving household to parents who did their best to provide for him and his siblings, Matt wasn’t a stranger to the harsh and haunting realities of drug abuse and alcoholism, which touched his brother, sister, and birth mother. Despite the destructive cycle of these vices, Matt was determined to learn from the paths his family members had chosen, and make conscious decisions to not allow himself to fall into the traps of drugs and alcohol.
At a very young age, he knew that he needed to rise above his circumstances and use his own persistence in order to prevent himself from becoming another statistic in the system.
Matt always dreamt of being a singer but as he grew older and became more realistic with life, he wanted to follow in his mother’s footsteps in becoming a nurse. After high school, he was accepted into nursing school only to realize that it wasn’t as tremendous as Grey’s Anatomy had portrayed it to be. Matt was still strong-willed and knew that he could find success in other ventures.
Initially, photography wasn’t his passion or something that he had planned to do with his life. Like every other teenager at 17-years-old, who wanted to make a little money after school, he worked a job at Walmart Portrait Studios. After countless hours behind the camera, he eventually fell in love with it. With a failed attempt at nursing school and a craft that he was intensely devoted to, he decided to turn photography into his business.
His inspiration in becoming a boudoir photographer emerged from the insecurities he struggled with. “I never thought I was cute enough and refused to take my shirt off as a kid and a teenager. As I grew older, I saw the insecurities that I had with everyone that I encountered,” he describes.
He also saw those same insecurities in his mother who suffered from extreme depression and self-esteem issues. In 2014, he photographed a boudoir session for her birthday and after seeing the photos she told him that for the first time in a long time she actually felt beautiful.
“I think we have this misconception about what our bodies should look like: if we aren’t skinny enough, strong enough, tall enough, or whatever the case may be. We are all so uniquely different and we should be proud of that.”
After working with so many individuals, seeing them struggle with their own image, and sharing his own story, he decided to write an autobiography. In this book Uncovered: The Naked Truth of Life, Love and Addiction, Matt leads his readers on a tumultuous journey that led to his success today.
From the extreme grief he experienced with the tragic loss of his mother, to the importance he places on remaining authentic in business and speaking to one’s own strengths, the novel has touched the lives of many people and sets him as an inspiration to all. The five-star book has been dubbed by readers on Amazon as an autobiography that is “honest, hilarious, and uplifting.”
Matt continues to share his story and spread his positivity through his photography workshops, appearances as a motivational speaker, his candid podcast Real Talk with Matt Matthews, and his various social media accounts. Gifted, charismatic, and humble, Matt has become the light for others in their time of darkness.
