Meet Matt Jones | Cycling Photographer / Athlete

We had the good fortune of connecting with Matt Jones and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Matt, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I always knew that I wanted to do something in the cycling industry. I grew up riding mountain bikes with my dad, and then began racing in late middle school. I haven’t stopped since! During my senior year of High School, I shattered my ankle and couldn’t race for over a year. During that time, I began shooting photos of the races that I would have been competing in had I not had that injury. While shooting I realized that I was having almost as much fun behind a camera as I would have been between the race tape! I kept practicing with my camera, read thousands of articles, books, magazines, etc about shooting and have been refining my style ever since. Ultimately, the jump into self-employment with my company “Matt Jones Photo” was able to come about when I could no longer juggle the amount of free-lance work that I had with my 9-5 job. At 24 years old, without a family to provide for, I figured that there wouldn’t be a more perfect time to take a bit of a risk and really give it my all to make the dream happen of being a full-time photographer. I’m over a year in now and I’ve learned so much. It’s been incredibly challenging, but I know the reward is worth the struggle.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I’m proud that my photography and videography style is very unique within our industry. My style is definitely raw and rough around the edges instead of clean and polished. I don’t particularly care to be technically perfect or have a scene staged perfectly. What I want to come across in my photos is a sense of personality, motion, speed, or interaction with the surrounding environment. My favorite photos generally combine all of these things.

The road to being able to create photographs in my own style was a difficult one. Growing up in the age of social media has been both a blessing and a curse. Every day I see photographs that I enjoy and would love the opportunity to create. But the flipside of being exposed to so much work is that I used to find myself comparing my photos and videos to the work of others and being let down that my own was generally not quite as “clean” or “pretty”. It’s been a long journey to not only accept that my eye for shooting is never going to be work the same way as others, but it’s been incredibly rewarding to find joy in my own style and gaining confidence that that “roughness” that is present in my work is actually pretty damn cool.

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is to not dis-trust the confidence that other people have in you. As creatives and artists, we tend to be hyper-fixated on our own flaws and the flaws present in our work. But here’s the thing; nothing is ever perfect. No one will ever create a perfect photograph or video. But, when other people enjoy your work or want to hire you, don’t second guess your worth. If someone wants you to shoot their event, team, etc., be confident that you have gained a seat at their table. You deserve to be there; all you have to do next is execute.

If there is one thing that I want people to know about my story / my brand, it is that I have failed so many more times than I can ever count. As cliche as it is, what has determined my success is my ability to evaluate why past failures didn’t work out so that I can take a step forward instead of a step back.

The last lesson I’ve learned is that if you do what you do for the right reasons, success will come much more naturally. Most of my brand connections came from personal ones gained from personal projects. I shoot because I love it and I love the people I get to connect with. If all the professional stuff went away, I’d still be shooting.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
When I first moved out here to Boulder, CO we were one week into the first pandemic shutdown. So for my entire first year here I wasn’t really able to explore the city! Now, as things have eased I almost always take friends out to the rooftop bar at Avanti on Pearl Street. Huge views of the flatirons and good drinks mean an entire evening can slip by real quick! Most of my friends ride bikes, so maybe we’d take a gravel ride up to the Gold Hill General store above Boulder for some homemade pie, or down to Golden for a mountain bike ride down the Longhorn Trail. We might go down to The Hi-Dive in Denver to see some rad bands in a smaller bar setting, or just float down Boulder Creek.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
So many people! The biggest shoutout goes to my parents, who sacrificed a lot of time to bring me out to races as a kid. My dad was a great sport when I always wanted to go faster and faster on my bike with him tailing along! My mom and dad are some of the best pep talkers out there and without them I’m not sure I’d have the confidence to do what I do now. Another shoutout to Gabe and Kacey Lloyd, who really gave me my first shot (and housing!) at high level racing photography as a college senior. Kevin and Scottee at Scottee’s Westport Bicycle in Massachusetts for keeping all my race bikes fresh while I was growing up on the east coast, and for their famously dry sense of humor! Lastly, shoutout to all the folks at Fuji Bikes for keeping me running on the rad mountain bikes that I ride and race on today!

Website: www.mattjonesphoto.com

Instagram: @mtjphoto

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-jones-photo