Dear Reader,

When I initially began writing this bio I was going for something bold, something profound, something that edged along the subtle lines of “forever world changing”. The point is that I felt I had to breach the walls of the "typical bio" and soar above and beyond and in-between (does that work?). Therefore I thought, and thought and thought...At first I considered moving in the direction of a somewhat more “intellectual” quote like: "Works of art, in my opinion, are the only objects in the material universe to possess internal order, and that is why, though I don't believe that only art matters, I do believe in Art for Art's sake." (EM Forster) then I decided that something a bit more unexpected might be well in order like: "Last night somebody broke into my apartment and replaced everything with exact duplicates... When I pointed it out to my roommate, he said, 'Do I know you?'" (Steven Wright). However as great as those quotes were I decided that they were much too long to make it into my epic smugmug bio; if I were to use a quote, it would have to be much shorter and concise, yet not too concise...but then I got a bit distracted and forgot about the idea altogether...

After I went and chased the sunset (aka took a few pictures), had some food, took a small nap and watched a movie, I leisurely continued thinking about my "forever world changing" smugmug bio. It had to be something that made people think, ponder, something parents would pass on for generations, and it certainly needed to be streamlined with all sorts of hidden symbolism, and heavy political and social statements...

After a few more weeks of thinking and research, I realized that perhaps I was a little bit off course; maybe, just maybe, this smugmug bio didn't have to quite be the epic written work I wanted it to be (this was just a thought).

What happened next you ask? Well, I wrote what you have already read (up until now) and I changed a few things around to make it seem like I spent excruciating amounts of time, thought and energy into writing this bio (or at least preparing to write this bio). What actually happened is that I just sort of started writing and then perhaps went back and edited one or two spelling errors and maybe if you’re lucky took out a paragraph or two (but I wouldn’t count on that).

After I wrote what I had already written, I re-read what I had written thus far, and came to the unfortunate conclusion that I still hadn't told you anything about my photography or myself. This was a bit hard for me to grasp, as I didn't feel like spilling out any more of my time and effort on this bio- then I had a stroke of genius (this usually happens at the top of each hour on weekdays and once each half-hour on weekends) and decided that instead of telling you all about myself and my photos, I would simply let the images speak for themselves...sadly enough, someone later informed me that my images were mute, in which case I was quite frustrated and hoped that I would not put this horrible, horrible joke into my bio; unfortunately I’m not that disciplined…you have my most unsympathetic apologies…


Sincerely,

Joshua Mattson

PS: Don't forget to visit my website astimeunravels.com