My name is Matt Morelli, I'm a semi pro photographer, and a completely unprofessional adventurer. In the past I have backpacked in over 20 states, including a North Bound thru hike of the Appalachian Trail in the spring of 2017. Currently I am traveling, photographing, and living out of a van I have converted to be livable. The van, a white 2002 Ford Econoline E-150 named Fox on the Run (a.k.a. Foxy), has been a perfect platform for photographing the west. The plan over the next several months is to explore the southwest out of my van this winter, then start moving north with the spring with Foxy.

The adventure of my photography career started nearly a decade ago on Christmas when I was only 12. I had been saving up my money for months to buy a new Nikon D60 and lens package. Instead, my last present that year was a gift from my parents, the exact camera package I had wanted. The catch to that gift was that I had to turn over my savings, a small fortune to a 12 year old, but, ever since the moment I tore the wrapping paper off that box, a camera has been in my hand. I will spare you all from my earliest photographs, but I hope you will enjoy the gallery of my most accomplished shots!

So what is it that makes my photographs special? Well first of all I am relatively young for the field coming in at only 21 years old. Second would be the fact that I have actually never pursued a formal education in the field of photography; therefore, I am totally self taught at this point, which helps to distinguish my own creative thought process more. The third, and I believe most important distinction in my photographs is the fact that anything you see in my work is exactly what the camera saw. That's right, no crazy editing. I have seen too many wonderful shots nearly ruined by excessive editing. The only edits that I will ever do are cropping, black and white conversion, and occasionally I will play with exposure in the post processing stage. Never will you seen blown out colors and contrast, but what the world really looked like in the exact moment of my camera's shutter opening.

I hope you, my patrons, appreciate my photographs a quarter as much as I enjoyed taking them. Thank you all!

- Matthew Morelli