Matthew Rolston

Matthew Russell Rolston is an American artist, photographer, director and creative director. He is known for his lighting techniques and detailed approach to art direction and design and has been repeatedly identified throughout his career with the revival and modern expression of Hollywood glamour.

1 Photography career
2 Film career
3 Hospitality
4 Fine art
5 Books
6 Honors and awards
7 References
8 External links

Photography career

Born in Los Angeles, Rolston studied drawing and painting there at the Chouinard Art Ins*ute and Otis College of Art & Design, as well as in the Bay Area at the San Francisco Art Ins*ute. He also studied illustration, photography, imaging and film at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, where in 2006, he received an honorary doctorate.

While still a student at Art Center, Rolston was "discovered" by Andy Warhol, for Warhol's celebrity focused Interview magazine, where he began a successful career in photography. Soon after, Rolston began shooting covers and editorial *ignments for founding editor Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone, as well as for other publications such as Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, Vanity Fair, W, GQ, Esquire, Cosmopolitan, O: The Oprah Magazine and The New York Times. Rolston has completed thousands of photoshoots in his career, including over 100 covers for Rolling Stone alone.

Rolston's career spans the areas of photography, film, creative direction, experiential design (including hospitality development), branding, product design, fine art and publishing.

Film career

Rolston also conceives, writes and directs film projects, having directed over 100 music videos and 200 television commercials in his career, including collaborations with artists as diverse as Madonna, Janet Jackson, Beyoncé Knowles, and Miley Cyrus, as well as numerous advertising campaigns - both print and television - for clients such as L'Oreal, Revlon, Estée Lauder, Clairol, Levi's, Pantene, Elizabeth Arden, Gap and Polo Ralph Lauren, among others.

Rolston has also appeared as a guest expert on a spectrum of beauty-oriented broadcast programs, from Bravo's Shear Genius and Make Me a Supermodel to the CW's America's Next Top Model.

Hospitality

Rolston expanded into creative direction and branding, developing projects in experiential design, including hospitality projects and product design. Rolston's first hospitality brand creation, developed for Los Angeles-based hotel and restaurant owner Sam Nazarian's company sbe Entertainment, opened in 2010. As the brand's creative director, he oversaw every detail with an extensive team that included architects, interior designers, graphic designers, music supervisors, scent experts, the uniform company that created the staff wardrobe, and more. Hospitality clients have included Mahmood Khimji's Highgate Holdings, Richard Branson's Virgin Hotels and Barry Sternlicht's SH Hotels.

Fine art

Rolston has created four photographic fine art projects that have led to a series of publications and exhibitions:

Talking Heads: The Vent Haven Portraits consists of monumental portraits of ventriloquial figures housed in the Vent Haven Museum in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky. This was Rolston's first self-*igned photographic series and debuted at Diane Rosenstein Fine Art in Los Angeles. It has since travelled to venues in Miami and Berlin, among others. Rolston's third published monograph accompanied the exhibition.

Hollywood Royale: Out of the School of Los Angeles - which includes Rolston's fourth monograph, as well as a travelling exhibition - is a retrospective of his editorial portraits from 1977 to 1993. Edited by long-time Los Angeles–based gallerist and curator David Fahey, this series presents an array of portraits that capture the 1980s and its myriad talents. From Michael Jackson and Madonna, to Prince, George Michael and Cyndi Lauper, the selection of images reflects the era.

Matthew Rolston, Art People: The Pageant Portraits is a series of emotionally-intimate portraits of participants in “Pageant of the Masters”, a tableaux vivants show that is part of an annual arts festival held in Laguna Beach, California. The project features dramatically scaled color prints; one installation alone is over thirty feet wide. Ralph Pucci International first exhibited this series in its Los Angeles gallery in 2017, and this work became Rolston's first solo ins*utional exhibition on the West Coast when it opened Summer 2021 at Laguna Art Museum.

Vanitas: The Palermo Portraits, as yet unpublished, is another dramatically scaled portrait series, this depicting Christian mummies housed in the Capuchin Catacombs of Sicily. The project represents Rolston's continuing evolution as a photographer and is an attempt to elevate his portraiture to a conceptual level.

Rolston has stated his purpose with art-making is to "pose questions about the things that make us most human."

Books

Hollywood Royale: Out of the School of Los Angeles – teNeues, 2017
Talking Heads: The Vent Haven Portraits – Pointed Leaf Press, 2012
beautyLIGHT: Pictures at a Magazine – teNeues, 2008
Big Pictures: A Book of Photographs – A Bulfinch Press Book, 1991
Matthew Rolston, Art People: The Pageant Portraits – Lucia | Marquand, published by Laguna Art Museum, 2021
James Danziger: Visual Aid – Pantheon, October 12, 1986.
Andy Warhol, Pat Hackett: The Andy Warhol Diaries – Warner Books, May 1989, p.:599-600ss.
Mark Francis, Margery King: The Warhol Look: Glamour Style Fashion – Bulfinch, October 1997, p.:246, 252-253ss.
Steve Reiss, Neil Feineman: Thirty Frames Per Second: The Visionary Art of the Music Video – Harry N. Abrams, October 1, 2000, p.:26, 206-211ss.
Henry Keazor, Thorsten Wübbena: Video Thrills The Radio Star. Musikvideos: Geschichte, Themen, *ysen – Bielefeld 2005, p.:27ss.
Sarah Mower: 20 Years Dolce & Gabbana – Slp edition, 5Continents, November 2005.
Trey Laird: Individuals: Portraits from the Gap Collection – Melcher Media, October 30, 2006, p.:37, 59, 82, 94, 98, 104, 120, 230ss.
Justyn Barnes, Nate Giorgio, David Nordahl Jordan Sommers: The Official Michael Jackson Opus – OPUS Media Group, December 7, 2009, "The Last Sitting," p.:242-247ss.
Charles Churchward: Herb Ritts: The Golden Hour: A Photographer's Life and His World – Rizzoli, October 26, 2010, p.:74-77, 79, 82–83, 99, 130, 207, 295, 311ss.
Kathy Ryan: The New York Times Magazine Photographs – Thames & Hudson, September 30, 2011, p.:304-305ss.
Derek Blasberg: Harper's Bazaar: Models – Abrams, October 13, 2015, p.:214-215ss.
Josh Baker, Allen Jones: Naomi Campbell – Collector's Edition, TASCHEN, 2016.
Steven M. Price: Trousdale Estates: Midcentury to Modern in Beverly Hills – Regan Arts, January 2017, p.:120-125ss.
Joan Juliet Buck: The Price of Illusion: A Memoir – Illustrated Edition, Atria Books, March 2017, p.:158, Plate Section Two (p.:5)ss.
Claudia Campaña: Michael Jackson: Artes visuales y símbolos – Metales pesados, Ediciones, 2018, p.:14-16ss.
Tim Street Porter, Annie Kelly: Splash: The Art of the Swimming Pool – Illustrated Edition, Rizzoli, April 2019, p.:4 (dedication), 216-217ss.
Ruth Reichl: Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir – Random House, April 2019, p.:165-166ss.
Paige Powell: Paige Powell: Beulah Land – Dashwood Books, May 2019, p.:229.
Sara Dallin, Keren Woodward: Really Saying Something: Sara & Keren – Our Banarama Story – Hutchinson, October 2020, Plate Section One, p.:10

Honors and awards

2015 Variety & WWD StyleMaker Awards, The Smashbox Visual Impact Award
2012 8th Annual Hospitality Design Awards for Creative Achievements, Winner, Midrange/Economy Public Spaces (Hotel LOLA, NYC)
2009 Pacific Design Center's Stars of Design Award, Honors in the Field of Photography
2008 Hollywood Life Magazine's Hollywood Style Awards, Visionary Lens Master
2008 17th Annual MVPA Awards, Winner, Best Direction, Pop Video of the Year (“Candyman,” Christina Aguilera)
2007 38th NAACP Image Awards, Outstanding Music Video Award (“Be Without You,” Mary J. Blige)
2007 MTV Video Music Awards, Nominee, Best Direction (“Candyman,” Christina Aguilera)
2006 BET Awards, Winner, Video of the Year (“Be Without You,” Mary J. Blige)
2006 PROMAX North America Broadcast Networks Awards, Winner, Best Directing (Desperate Housewives, “Juicy”)
2006 Honorary Doctorate, ArtCenter College of Design, Pasadena, CA
1999 AICP Awards, Award for Advertising Excellence (“Khakis Swing,” The GAP)
1999 AICP Awards, Award for Visual Style (“Khakis Swing,” The GAP)
1994 BET Awards, Winner, Best Urban / R&B Video (“Whatta Man,” Salt ‘n' Pepa/En Vogue)
1992 MTV Video Music Awards, Nominee, Best Direction (“My Lovin,” En Vogue)
1989 California Designer Awards, Award for Fashion Photography

References

Matthew Rolston Is A Member Of

69 Year Olds

Matthew

Los Angeles, California