Profile

Thank you for visiting matbeetson.com.au.

A little bit about me and how I started my photographic journey.

My photographic career began in 1991, my first job as a 14 year old was working for Kodak in one of the biggest and busiest professional photographic retail stores in the heart of Perth CBD. From what started as something of interest, working at this store ignited a passion for photography that has been with me to this day. 

I moved on from Kodak after 6 years, to join one of the biggest camera stores in Australia affectionately known as Plaza's, where I met some of the best people in the game. I am still lucky to count many of the old Plaza crew as friends today, some of which are world renowned photographers themselves. 

I was also really lucky to work at both Fujifilm and Canon which provided unparalleled learning and growth opportunities for my photography and I got to meet more of the best photographers in the world.

Those companies fostered a great culture and I attended photographic workshops either passing on my knowledge or listening in to guest photographers talk about their craft. After attending an abnormal number of events as a host or guest, I decided to take my photography a bit more seriously and there were more than a few lessons that have stuck with me till this day.

I left Canon for a sea change to Broome and what was only supposed to be a 12 month hiatus has turned into enough years to call this place home. After leaving Canon and the better part of 20+ years in the Photographic industry I had often thought my photographic career was over. As the years passed, my love of photography has never subsided. I realised it never really ended, I just hadn’t started the next chapter.

For me photography is so much more than just the adventure of getting out to wild and sometimes very remote places, more than capturing those special family memories or events and seeing the smiles that come from people seeing your images. More than winning awards for your creation and more than just the absolute joy of the process from capture to print. For me it is also the lifelong connection to people who share this passion that comes from photography. The friends (family!) and people who I have grown up with together in the industry that have remained friends, to meeting new people just starting out on their photographic journey, it is this friendship and bond that makes photography more than just capturing great images. It is an amazing community that I hope continues to nurture this essence, grow and always thrives.

Mat Beetson