It's August 11th, 2007, and this is The Candid Frame. Welcome once again to the candid frame.

Today's guest is Matthew Gregory Hollis, a photographer whose images focusing on masculinity,

sex, and race are both beautiful and evocative.

Images of sex and sexuality are everywhere in our culture, but most of what we see are

images that are more rooted in fantasy than reality. Those photographs exist primarily to feed

off of our insecurities and a desire to connect in order to sell us something that we otherwise

we would likely never want or need.

These images are used to titillate and manipulate rather than speak to the complex reality

of sex and sexuality.

Matthew's work is the antithesis of all that.

The photographs that bravely explore the uncertainty, the nervousness, and sometimes the isolation

of sex.

His images bring up complex issues about race and sex, and while these photographs don't

seek to answer all the questions they give rise to, they do make us question what we think

we know about others and ourselves.

So I hope you enjoy our conversation with Matthew Gregory Haas.

Well, Matthew, welcome to the show.

It's a pleasure to have you and have a chance to talk to you about your work.

Well, thank you for having me.

I always start with trying to get, find out how people

got started in photography. I know you, you got a couple of degrees in it, but when did it

begin for you? It's, you know, it's going to be, it's going to sound a little strange,

...