Matt Lambert is a photographer, filmmaker and visual artist based in Berlin and working between Berlin, London, New York and Los Angeles. Lambert often explores themes of intimacy, youth, sexuality and identity. His current film work is a hybrid of narrative, documentary and experimental filmmaking. He has recently completed writing and directing a TV series with a major US network based on love in coming-of-age. Also Lambert has recently released his first book of photography, entitled KEIM, and this is the primordial reason why we are talking to him today. Unfortunately we are not the only ones who want to talk to him about it, apparently he is very, very busy, so he proposed kind of multiple choice interview or mono-word answer; and here we are… starting with this experiment which I will call from now on “lazy journalism/speed answers”.
Did you have the idea of making a photobook? If not, who did?
No. It was my friend Amy Binding at Sleek Magazine who first connected me with Pogo Books after seeing all my unpublished archives.
Has working in an editorial project been enriching for you?
It was a great experience and really helped me look and back and forward at where my work stands.
In one word, why the title KEIM — German for “germ, seed”?
Birth.
The book's design, by Studio Yukiko, is excellent. Have you cooperated in its graphic design?
Yes. I come from a design background and we worked collaboratively as throughout their process. They are some of my favourite working art directors as well as trusted friends.
In one word, how was working with Studio Yukiko?
Synergistic.
Hi-gloss, screen-printed, is the transparent dust jacket censoring the NSFW (real) cover image?
Yes.
That cover image is a double exposure photo showing what, exactly?
It is a long exposure of a friend masturbating.
168 pages published by Pogo Books, the first edition is already sold out and it had 500 copies and a white dust jacket. The second edition, with a black dust jacket, is already out with 1000 copies. One could say the book is a success?
On a small scale, but more than we had expected.
If there was a third edition, what colour would the dust jacket be?
Red or gold, but I think we will stop at this edition as I'm planning a new publishing project with my husband. It's more of a zine style piece called VITIUM that Yukiko is also art directing. It will be out in February.
There are only 3 pages of text in the book and those are the foreword by Jefferson Hack –co-founder of Dazed–, did you ask him to write it? If not, who did?
I asked him personally and we've gotten to know each other much better since.
Hack starts his text with a phrase by the great photographer Diane Arbus: “A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you know.” Do you agree with Arbus' words?
Yes, I do.
And what’s the meaning of the Arbus statement for you?
An endless and re-contextualizing narrative.
Hack also mentions Larry Clark and Nan Goldin as influences in your work. With whom do you feel more identified?
A bit of both. Larry for his topics, but Nan for her honesty, intimacy and visual style.
Why did you choose to present the pictures with absolutely no text or references?
A lack of fashion or cultural indicators allows the viewer to project more universally onto the characters.
Is the book a photographic documentation diary of adolescent sexual behaviour?
It is more of a diary.
KEIM is packed with photos of young men in a variety of poses that range from the confrontational to the vulnerable. How did you find so many boys willing to be photographed naked?
Most are friends and some were found trough friends or online. More lately people approach me. It is about shooting people honestly and the nudity is not the overriding theme. People are a lot more open in Berlin in general too.
I have also read that lately you have been most interested in youth and/or people who are coming-of-age or transitioning into adulthood. Is that the case in the majority of the photos of your work for KEIM?
Yes.
In the other interview for METAL almost two years ago, you insisted that your work is never made with the intention of shocking people. In the book most of the models are turned on and there are even close-ups of ejaculation. Do you still keep this position?
Absolutely. There is nothing shocking about sexuality in any way as long as it's approached with honesty and without exploitation.
Your book starts and ends with sex, just sex?
No. It is about intimacy.
Will your purpose be to create a world (at least through your photographs and films) of sexual liberation, one where there is no shame in being naked, one where people are comfortable in their own skin and experience sexuality that lacks the judgment of current social systems?
Absolutely.
Do you think that boundaries between sex and friendship should be blurred?
In the gay world they are.
Now let's move to a few more general items, to know better what is your position regarding the art disciplines you work with. You belong to the internet era, but about photography, what do you prefer, analogue or digital?
Both.
Given the explosion of the digital world, do you think that an image is not a photograph until printed?
No.
Is the internet contributing to the death of printed photobooks?
Yes, but it's also just changed the way they live.
Has the printed book become a fetish?
Yes.
In a certain way, your short movies of boys and escorts are a kind of video-portraits. What do you prefer, static images or images in motion?
The majority of my work is as a filmmaker and has been for a long time. My photo work is just a very recent thing. The video portraits were one small project, but I'm mostly working in narrative now and spent the last year writing and directing a new TV series for the US. So, film is about 75% the focus and will continue to be.
What’s your position about the massive circulation of images in the net (one word answer)?
Enlightening.
Please, mention a photographer you admire the most.
Long list! But let's say Nan for sake of this chat.
Please, mention a filmmaker you admire the most.
Pass.
Please mention a piece of art you really, really love or you are always inspired by.
Heart of the World by Guy Maddin.
Speedy questions: low culture or high culture?
Low.
Philosophy or psychology?
Philosophy.
Are you interested in politics?
Yes.
Left side or right side?
Right.
Let's change a bit the subject and talk about Berlin. The city has something of a reputation for its feeling of sexual liberation, is it a kind of space where sexual boundaries can be crossed freely and openly without judgment?
More than most.
Do you go to Berghain? How often?
Very rarely. My husband worked there for several years though...
The city has become home to thousands of artists and filmmakers looking to capture its vibrant, and sometimes shocking, nature. Is that your case?
No. I came to live.
Coming from Los Angeles, but also constantly moving between London and New York, has Berlin really had an impact on your life?
Of course.
And in your art?
They are completely interconnected.
And to finish, please tell us two or more Berlin based artists from any discipline you know and like.
Really into Lotic and Martin Eder right now.
