Check out Matt Santos’s Artwork

Today we’d like to introduce you to Matt Santos.

Matt, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I’m an old man in a young man’s industry. Way back in the late 1970 I decided that I wanted to tell stories. First through photos, when we did so with silver, paper, chemicals, and typed pages, then I continued to do so as the industry moved to the digital format. Dinosaurs like me have struggled, but we have also survived. I got my first newspaper job as a photojournalist in 1980 with a weekly paper in the SF bay area, moved to a local daily, then on to AP & UPI, freelancing covering everything from major national news events, to horrible disasters, to small town news & family events. I captured images & emotion for decades then found the medium changing. From print media to social media- where being first was more important to being correct. I decided to make a shift from spot news on local print journalism in Prescott, AZ to long form story telling through podcasting in 2014 when I launched The Mile High Show (milehighshow.com) and found that sitting down with a mic & a recorder was much more fun than trying to type out a story and post it before anyone else could beat me to it.

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
I spent the late 70’s & early 80’s with a police scanner plugged into my ear, driving around the SF Bay Area chasing fire trucks, ambulances, & cop cars to shootings, house fires, home invasions, & car wrecks. Trying to capture the image that would 1 sell papers, & 2 make people cry, all at the same time. Before I was 25 yrs. old I had been shot at, stabbed, and ran over by more than one truck on the highway- all while trying to grab the story that would put me on the front page. After too many front pages, above the fold pics to count, I was still chasing the goal but not satisfied. In 1989 I was in the center of a major news story, the Loma Prieta Earthquake, where I saw devastation at a level I wasn’t prepared for, 1st responders handling situations they had been trained for, and international journalism awards I was unequipped to handle. I was praised for my art form when I was embarrassed to click the shutter. I needed a break to handle what I had seen.

I took a sabbatical from the photo journ world for a few years to clear my head, returned to small town photojournalism in 2005 in Northern AZ, then, in 2014, expanded to podcasting as an outlet to tell stories and highlight the accomplishments of local artists. The Mile High Show is a podcast that highlights what local & touring musicians, artists, & comedians are creating for their fans. I continue to create both photographic & written word content for Yavapai County groups, organizations, & municipalities for their web & social media outlets.

The sterotype of a starving artist scares away many potentially talented artists from pursuing art – any advice or thoughts about how to deal with the financial concerns an aspiring artist might be concerned about?
I worried for many years how I would support myself & my family. From 1979 until 1995 I was on my own, so paying my bills was pretty simple. After getting married in 1995, I thought, “How will I support myself & my wife?” Then, after 15 years of worrying & fretting, we became parents in 2009 & I thought “How will I ever support a whole family!?”

Then, after getting a grip, I realized, if I tell a good story, if I talk to interesting people, if I concentrate on the “who” instead of the “why” people will listen & the podcast will survive. 30, 000 listeners a month later, I guess I’ll be OK My 8 yr. old son is a frequent guest host on my podcast so I like to think I’m doing fine, but I still haven’t figured out a way to get my wife to listen.

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
http://www.msantosphotographer.com/
http://milehighshow.com/
http://www.chinoaz.net/
http://www.yavapai.us/
https://www.chino.k12.ca.us/

Contact Info:

• Address: 3475 N Lizard Ln
• Website: http://milehighshow.com/
• Phone: 9282377259
• Email: msantosphoto@gmail.com
• Instagram: @themilehighshow
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/milehighshow/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheMileHighShow

Image Credit:
http://www.msantosphotographer.com/

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