Meet Mattea Linae | photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Mattea Linae and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mattea, how do you define success?
Because a lot of creative endeavors are so subjective, I think it’s important to look inward and ask yourself if you like your work. If you do, you’re doing something right. Social media has really skewed art in the sense that it’s made viewing other people’s work more accessible and positively speaking, it can be really inspiring, but on the flip side, it’s also made comparison easy. People start to assign values to their work based on social media engagement. Art should never be about what performs best online or what it looks like, but rather how it makes us feel.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My favorite thing to photograph is people. I like to focus less on the end product, and more on the session experience. You could have the best editing skills in the world, but if you don’t have the emotion in the image, it will still fall flat no matter what you do. So my approach is to read the room. There are times when you need to be quiet and observant, times when you need to take charge and direct people, and times when you happen to catch the eye of someone across the room and have a one second exchange in complete silence. There are so many unwritten rules in this type of work, and they’re soft skills that take time to develop. To me, this form of art is about how you connect with people and help them tell their stories, rather than telling it for them.

I have been in this field for over a decade and it’s easy in the sense that I truly love what I do because it very rarely feels like work (though don’t get me wrong, there are times when it definitely does!). Like any other job, there are difficulties, especially if you’re freelance – worrying about retirement, and trying to figure out when your next gig will come and if it does, how much will it be? And the hardest part is trying to assign a dollar value to your work and convince someone to see it the same way you do.

Growing up, I really valued being known. I wanted my work to be known. But things have really changed in the last few years. Now I care less about leaving a legacy, but gifting one of the greatest gifts someone could ever receive – memories.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
We’d probably go to blueys for some brunch, then hit abbot kinney for shopping and maybe do some pickleball or ola. for dinner, you really can’t go wrong with street tacos. probably go to echo park and the silverlake flea market. and then el matador beach at low tide is definitely a must.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
To my parents – that taught me that love is a choice. Their humanitarian spirits have guided my worldview from a young age and my work. I believe that I am my work. And I want nothing more than for my work to embody what it means to be human – the highs, the lows, and everything in between.

Website: https://www.mattealinae.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattealinae/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattea-linae-wabeke-179446113/

Image Credits
All images by me (Mattea LinAe)