Jess de Mattos

My photography education is heavily based in the fashion sector, having completed a Foundation Year at London College of Fashion and then completing a BAhons degree in Photography for Fashion and Advertising. At university, I was heavily criticised for producing work that was 'too commercial', but, much to my tutor's chagrin, the way I saw it was that someone out there has to produce the commercial content, so why not me...! My portfolio was saturated with commercial beauty work - it's still an area of photography that I love and admire today. For me, the whole process of creating beauty photography, from assembling a team to the final retouching is what makes the photograph. I started out with a 35mm film camera at age 12, and absolutely feel that it has been a hugely beneficial skill in my photography journey, but feel that in the commercial world, digital photography has it's own strengths. For me, it made what I wanted to achieve in my photography, possible. Over time, photography has become less of a commercial venture for me, and I have enjoyed it much more as photography for the love of photography - although nowadays, I don't get behind the camera nearly as much as I would like to! www.jessicademattos.com