Mateo Hevezi

Mateo Hevezi was born on September 9, 1966, in Indiana USA, a short drive from the city of Chicago. He grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. Always on the move, he has never been in one spot very long … a true nomad in every sense. In America, he has lived in 12 of the 49 states, and in seven Asian countries throughout his adult years. Hawaii does not belong to America, it was stolen, so he says. Photography became his career profession in 1990 while assigned as a U.S. Marine Corps combat correspondent.

He has studied formally at Syracuse University, New York, and graduated from the Photojournalism Program in 2000, but holds no degree of any kind. He believes in a philosophy promoting the basic principle that nobody needs a piece of paper to validate artistic ability or high contribution to human society … and, that fantastic education in art can be found in great quantity outside formal academic institutions.

His mentors and inspiration from a long list of talented photographers, editors, and artists, including Eddie Adams, Nick Ut, David Longstreath, Rene Reyna, Steve Nelson, Hartman Slate, Yoshida Seidoh, Rick Rickman, Cesar Naranjo, J Ford Huffman, Andrew Meyers, Bill Auth, Ami Vitale, Apichart Weerawong, Kyoichi Sawada, David Guttenfelder, Louis Sinco, Rick Loomis, Torin Boyd, Chip Maury, Ken Kobre, David Sutherland, Carolyn Cole, Paula Bronstein, Catherine Le Roy, David Douglas Duncan, and many many others. When people ask about his style, the answer always is “people & nature,” his two favorite subjects.