Harry Mattison


Harry Mattison is an American photographer born Henry E. Mattison in New York City. In 1978, he photographed the bombing of Estelí, Nicaragua and began working as a photographer for Time magazine. Between 1977 and 1996, Mattison photographed in Central America, Lebanon, and South Africa. His photographs have also appeared in The New York Times, Le Figaro, Paris Match, Der Spiegel, and many other publications. In 1982, he was awarded the Robert Capa Gold Medal for photography. That same year, he published El Salvador: Work of Thirty Photographers, which he co-edited with Susan Meiselas.
Mattison earned a B.A. in Philosophy and Literature at Fordham University in 1971. During college he worked as an assistant to the photographer Richard Avedon. Following graduation, he did research for Ivan Illich in Cuernavaca, Mexico.
He lives in Maryland with his wife, poet Carolyn Forché, and their son, Sean-Christophe. He is a member of the permanent faculty of the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland. He has been photographing in the People's Republic of China during the past four years. A forthcoming book, VITA: Harry Mattison, will be published in November 2013 by Umbrage Editions, New York.

Exhibitions

Photographs have appeared in the following books: