NoCap Mat is a gem of a human, who I was so stoked to get on this podcast. His humble attitude to everything feels like a disguise for his extensive knowledge and experience with phootgraphy, web3 projects, and how to live life as a creative with a drive to explore new ideas. This episode is, in my opinion, a window into not just NFT culture, but what life can look like for folks living in the tri-state area of NJ-NY-CT, located in the North East region of the United States.
Starting with his origin story of how he got into photography, we went through a wide array of topics about what it means to work as a creative in various industries, what life on web3 is like, and the culture behind it all. Essentially, Mat shared what I would consider an incredibly honest depiction of what the journey can look like many folks who strive to find work related to their passions, and are not afraid to try new things - especially new technologies.
Essentially Mat started out by landing a job at a mom-n-pop camera shop. From here, his journey takes him through the realms of both film and digital photography, and lands him in some traditional event photography work like most professional photographers at some point either consider, or end up doing.
The uncertainty he experienced early on about his craft, and potential career as somebody trying to establish themselves as a professional is very real, and relatable. His growth after a lot of hard work to somebody who is needed is an example of how perseverance can pay off, but the lessons in a decade of hard work being peppered by doubt and unpredictability are certainly not light ones.
Staying true to the passion, through all the headache of exhausting logistics of travel, not getting paid enough (exposure doesn’t pay rent goddamnit), and basically suffering in the face of survival, he found himself falling out of love with the medium a bit. Also relatable. There are so many variations of burn out, and the urge to give up when it comes to being an artist in any medium.
Mat’s experience of beginning to find himself associating his craft with the pains of trying to make it work is so incredibly pertinent. When things become a grind, well that might be a sign that this is not a healthy thing that is being pursued. Or, maybe, it’s the approach that’s not working out, and it’s time to try new things.
So eventually, his path brings him to video taping depositions at legal hearings. What the fuck, right? The mundaneness is kind of hilarious actually; there is something comical about the banality of what we all have to do sometimes for work, just to get by. If we can’t laugh at ourselves, we might be taking things a little too seriously, right?
Ultimately, the COVID pandemic put this situation in check, and changed what he was doing, so it’s not exactly like he had a choice in this affair. And this actually circles us back around to what drives Matt in his creative work; I discovered that Matt is more technically minded and motivated, which I find is not uncommon at all with a majority of talented photographers. Instead of heavy outside influence, his love of the machine and the flow with his tools drives him, and that, in my opinion, is what creates the most unique work.
He has a respect for other art that precedes him, and is very humble and honest about how he doesn’t have an academic, or official background with it. Sounds like freedom to me, to be perfectly honest. It’s the age of developing Google-Fu, and we’re all pretty good at it. How amazing is it that we can just look up art instantly nowadays? Fuck spending days just trying to find a book and accidentally stumbling on artists that you now need to find more books about, with limited resources!
So back to Mat’s story, it continues from the phase of the video taping and subsequent pandemic driven online meeting management, to where we are now: engaging with “web3” communities. While he is active with PFP projects (he is the community manager for Mad Rabbits!), he maintains his creativity with his personal projects, and continues to explore what and how he can present to this new creative economy of crypto art.
And so, we dive into the story of how Matt got started with MRRC. We explore what it means to be a part of it, how the culture works, and the sheer insanity of how much money is exchanging hands in these insane ecosystems. It’s absolutely mind boggling for folks like us who don’t come from a lot of money. The shoutout to Directive Creator for being the bridge for Mat discovering MRRC is a great one. It’s always people that make the best connections between us all.
There is a lot of insight here about how working in this ecosystem goes, and how it really is very demanding of folks’ energy and time. We have to wear so many different hats, and work with tech that is still relatively new. Anything cutting edge will have problems, but it also comes with a lot of potential, which is the promise that keeps us all going.
Couple all of that that with a healthy community that supports artists, and we have something worth spending the time and money on. It’s tough; there’s a lot of promises, and no guarantees, but this is no different than anything in this world of commerce and capitalism.
Speaking of healthy community, we touch on a few stories that exemplify this. One is how the MRRC founder Nauts flew out Mat’s brother to NFT NYC, as a complete surprise. Another is how folks pulled up to 100 daily Twitter Spaces in a row that Mat was hosting. These are testaments to how valuable some of the connections we have made through these crazy crypto art projects are.
Besides, fuck the grind; we’re just having fun out here. Things don’t have to be defined by how the majority of projects do things out there. We don’t have to burn out. And communities like MRRC are proof of this. And that a creative soul like Matt is part of the glue that holds this stuff together is a really good sign. It shows that folks value others well beyond commodifying their talents; that they see the value in their humanity.
Especially in spheres defined by financial technology, I respect groups that give creatives a platform like this to shine in. Instead of falling into a cult of personality, organic groups thrive on supporting each other because they’re real people, dealing with real issues in life. And supporting artists genuinely falls into this category of behavior as well.
We get into what it means to live in an age of digital art - the upside and downsides of both. I love the fluidity of our conversation, not just because we’re both part of a similar regional culture of art and language, but also because we put weight on things like art and technology in a similar fashion. Maybe we’re just total dorks.
I could write so much more about my thoughts about our discussion, but I’m just going to let the podcast flesh it out for you. I can’t wait to have Matt back on the show. And it will likely be with a few more friends along for the ride, so stay tuned for that! Don’t forget to connect with him on Twitter, and/or Instagram, and let us know what you think about the these topics we covered, because we managed to cover a lot in just over an hour!
Next podcast will be with the incredible Morgan Shay! She’s not on Twitter, but here’s her Instagram. And here’s a photo of the last private shoot we did with her, which I will be minting very soon. Photo was taken by Adam Courtney, who we collaborated with for this live installation.
Transmission #16 - NoCapMat