Thursday, March 22, 2012

Spring Time

Springtime is the time of renewal, plants, animals, and people alike, all come forth from winter hibernation and spring to life. Plants grow and bloom, animals graze, and people laze under a clear blue sky (that is when it is not raining). Here is a collection of images taken in Athens (and one from a restraunt that is totally unrelated but looks cool) that I hope you enjoy.


















All photos copyright matthew hatcher 2012

Thursday, March 15, 2012

My Portfolio 2012

A sample of the work I have done over the past couple of years.



Ohio University men’s basketball guard Ricardo Johnson 
is helped up by teammates Ivo Baltic and Jon Smith, 
during the Ohio University vs Mercyhurst on November 7th 2011.


The Reverend Jesse Jackson takes a moment to sit and talk with 
Kierra Barclay, Alexis Wills, and Quiana Rives
 prior to delivering a speech in the Baker 
Ballroom about poverty on September 26th 2011.

A DJ pauses for a portrait during a house show in Athens, Ohio.


Freshman Infielder Jenna Giusti dives for first during the end of the 
6th inning at the Ohio Women’s softball game against
 Buffalo on Sunday, April 25th 2010. The Bobcats won the game 5-3.


Observing others who are observing her, a gorilla at the
 Columbus Zoo reaches out to visitors on August 20th, 2010.



Grace Wheeler of Pickerington, Ohio, prays in front of a cross that marks the grave of a soldier from Pickerington who died during the Vietnam War while waiting in line at the Vietnam Memorial Wall at American Legion Post 283 in Pickerington, Ohio.





Mike Haught (right) of West Virginia, helps Tyler Harnom (left) make ropes out of neck ties to hold together all of his belongings including a heavy comforter that Tyler got from The Open Shelter, a homeless shelter in Columbus, Ohio. “I’ve been homeless since I was 13.” Tyler says as he ties his makeshift ropes around the bulky comforter, “I live in a tent under a railroad bridge now.”



A student walks past a pile of burning trash during the events of 
High Fest on 2010 in which partiers ignited a fire on 
High Street during the annual street fest known as High Fest.


A young boy walks along the Vietnam Wall Memorial on 11/13/10 during the Wall’s visit to Pickerington’s American Legion Post 283.


Ohio University Guard DJ Cooper goes in for a shot 
during the Ohio University vs Mercyhurst on November 7th 2011.


First Grade Teacher and first year shelter volunteer, 
Mary Helba serves out dessert to hungry eyes during a Christmas party 
for the less fortunate at  the Saint Johns Community Kitchen in Columbus, Ohio.


A reminder as well as a tribute to friends afflicted, this digital work
represents the dangers presented by prescription drugs when misused.






Saturday, March 10, 2012

Destroyed Homesteads


Like gravestones marking the death of a simpler rural life at the far reaches of most metropolitan cities, cold and lonely, abandon homesteads provide a window into our mark on the earth. Rusted nails, broken glass, forgotten child’s toys, they seem the perfect setting for an apocalyptic end of time novel. Who lived here? Why did they leave? We see the traces of the former owners, the torn wall paper, children’s heights marked year by year on the lime paint beneath the torn wall paper, but occupants there are none. However the houses they stay, like pets waiting for a master to return, a return that shall never happen, only the mice and raccoons and other creatures are willing to adopt these homesteads.


 Rusted nails and broken glass,
Boards and bricks litter the grass,
Lead paint peeling from maintenance slowed,
The lonely house stares, gaping down the gravel road,
Its windows busted and doors dis-hinged,
Pieces of furniture in the yard black and singed,
A home once but now a grave,
Dirty dismantled shack no one can save,
As the sun sets and casts gold rays,
We turn and leave, but the house it stays.
Stays for now to guard the road,
Cracked and rocky, love not showed...


Here are some images of a new side project to my homeless story, about abandon homes and homesteads,
enjoy, more to come.