Matthew Pillsbury

Current works

Pillsbury is currently working on a new body of work that is being photographed in and around New York City. Expanding on his previous works in City Stages, which was shot in black and white and almost entirely in Manhattan, Pillsbury shot in color following his first foray into the medium in his Tokyo series in 2014. A portfolio of his new images was featured in The New Yorker in September 2015, and showcased locations that include The High Line, the American Museum of Natural History, Astoria Park Pool and the Coney Island Boardwalk. He has also widened the project's focus to include locations outside of Manhattan, after a move to Brooklyn in January 2015 that inspired him to shoot urban life in the outer boroughs.

In August 2015, Pillsbury was commissioned by The New Yorker to photograph a large-scale projection on the southern face of the Empire State Building. Entitled "Project Change," the projected images and videos raised awareness for the plight of endangered animals. His featured images included a black and white, long exposure shot of a rooftop party with the face of a tiger appearing on the Empire State Building in the background above it.

In a redesign and relaunch in the February 22, 2015 issue, The New York Times Magazine published a Pillsbury photograph on its cover. The long exposure image featured an illuminated spinning globe, which Pillsbury took in his basement.

In 2014, Pillsbury photographed various cities in Japan, with the focus being in and around Tokyo. Recent photographs from his work in Tokyo were revealed in a photo essay published on July 18, 2014 in The New York Times Magazine and include images from Tokyo Disneyland, Robot Restaurant and the CupNoodles Museum in Yokohama. In April 2014, The New York Times Magazine first ran a photo essay of Pillsbury's work that centered around the hanami parties that occur during the week when the cherry blossoms are at peak bloom. An exhibition of Pillsbury's new Tokyo work opened Sept 10, 2014 and closed November 15, 2014 in New York City at Benrubi Gallery.

Other work and exhibitions

In April 2014, Pillsbury was one of 11 photographers awarded the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship. Approximately 200 Fellowships are awarded each year through two annual competitions that receive between 3,500 and 4,000 applications. Guggenheim Fellowships are grants awarded to "advanced professionals in mid-career" who have demonstrated exceptional ability by publishing a significant body of work within the fields of natural sciences, social sciences, humanities and the creative arts, excluding the performing arts.

Pillsbury's series, "City Stages", had a special opening reception on February 19, 2014 at the Aperture Foundation Gallery in New York City and ran from February 20 - March 27, 2014. The “City Stages” exhibition initially ran from February 23, 2012 to April 28, 2012 at the Bonni Bunrubi Gallery in New York City. The exhibition opened in Atlanta, GA on September 13, 2012 and ran until November 17, 2012 at Jackson Fine Art gallery.

Another exhibition, which highlights many pieces from Pillsbury's previous "Screen Lives" collection, began Feb 26, 2014 at the Sasha Wolf Gallery and ran through April 20, 2014. Pillsbury began shooting the series in 2004 when he met his ex-partner Nathan Noland and came out of the closet as a gay man. The series is the first show in his career solely focused on Pillsbury's personal life.

In September 2013, the Aperture Foundation published a monograph that includes a retrospective of Pillsbury works, titled, City Stages. New York Times Magazine published one of Pillsbury's "City Stages" photos as part of their Manhattanhenge feature in July 2013. Art Relish conducted an interview in October 2012 with Pillsbury discussing his "City Stages" works. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution also wrote a review of the exhibit. In the Oct 1, 2012 edition of Time Magazine, Pillsbury's "High Line" photo, featuring a park in Manhattan constructed of abandoned train tracks, was highlighted as part of his exhibit at the Jackson Fine Art gallery. The "High Line" photo is also the cover of Pillsbury's retrospective book, "City Stages". Mail Online published several of Pillsbury's "City Stages" works in a January 2013 article.

Works in the "City Stages" series include the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the Inflation of Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons from the American Museum of Natural History, Woody Allen and the Eddy Davis New Orleans Jazz Band at Cafe Carlyle, the Reading Room at the New York Public Library, Jazz at the Lincoln Center, the Broadway musical “Book of Mormon,” a contortionist at Big Apple Circus, the Brooklyn Bridge Park and Jane's Carousel, New York Stock Exchange and the Tribute of Light at the World Trade Center as viewed from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. The New York Times Magazine blog The 6th Floor overviewed the series and featured seven photos.

The New York Times and the Aperture Foundation published “New York Times Photographs” in the fall of 2011, featuring one of Pillsbury’s photos of the American Museum of Natural History's Rose Center For Earth and Space.

On the CNN Photos Blog, Pillsbury's "Screen Lives" series was featured in a post about the School of Visual Arts "Myths & Realities" show, which took at the Visual Arts Gallery in New York, Aug 29-Sept 29, 2012.

The Society of Publication Designers announced on May 29, 2012 that Pillsbury won a gold and silver medal in their 47th Annual Design Competition held in February 2012. Pillsbury, along with New York Magazine director of photography Jody Quon, won a Gold medal in the "Photo: Feature, Travel/Food/Still Life (single/spread)" category for his "High Line" photo that appeared on December 19, 2011 in New York Magazine. Pillsbury also won a silver medal for his "Zuccotti Park" photo that appeared in the December 19, 2011 issue of New York Magazine.

On November 27, 2011, New York Times Magazine featured two of Pillsbury's photos of Jane's Carousel from “City Stages."

In the Dec 11, 2011 issue of New York Magazine, Pillsbury’s works were published as part of their “Reasons to Love New York 2011” feature. The photos included four shots from “City Stages,” which included Occupy Wall Street protesters in Zuccotti Park, as well as “Jing Fong dim sum”, “Fausto in Washington Square Park” and “High Line.”

Career summary

Since 2004, Pillsbury has had over 25 solo and 35 group exhibitions in the US, Canada and throughout Europe. He is represented by the Bonni Benrubi Gallery in New York City, by the Michael Hoppen Gallery in London, the Douglas Udell Gallery in Vancouver, Canada and Jackson Fine Art in Atlanta, GA.

Pillsbury’s work is part of over 25 permanent collections throughout the U.S, Canada and Europe including The Museum of Modern Art, The Guggenheim and The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Musée du Louvre in Paris, France and The Tate Modern in London, England.

Two of Pillsbury’s major influences include Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto and Cuban-born photographer Abelardo Morell, also a Yale alumni, who is also represented by the Bonni Benrubi Gallery in New York.

Pillsbury's Screen Lives series, inspired by Sugimoto’s movie theater photos, features black and white, long-exposure photographs of family and friends sitting in their apartments interacting with their computer and television screens.,

Pillsbury told the School of Visual Arts Magazine in 2010, “I realized the role these objects were playing and the amount of time we’re spending with them,” he said. “Many people now spend several hours a day with these things, and yet that’s not being reflected in the art people are making.”

As a child growing up in France, Pillsbury was not allowed to watch TV so examining how the medium affects people’s everyday lives fascinated him. In 2008 he told The Calgary Herald of his time at Yale. “For a kid who was deprived, I started watching television more than I should have. I was fascinated by the role these shows have in our lives…We would all gather in the TV room and watch Melrose Place.”

For this series Pillsbury earned the runner up prize in the New York Times Magazine’s “Capture the Times” photography contest. He also won the Fondation HSBC pour la Photographie award in France in 2007.

In 2004 The New York Times Magazine commissioned Pillsbury to do a portfolio of photos of New York museums after hours. One such photo was taken at the Guggenheim Museum: An installation in progress in the Ronald O. Perelman Rotunda (Oct. 1, 2004.)

In addition to New York, Pillsbury continued to shoot within museums in both London and Paris, including the Musée du Louvre. At the Lourve he photographed the Mona Lisa. ,

One of the photographs in the series, “Dinosaur Coming to Life,” featured a dinosaur skeleton within the American Museum of Natural History in 2004.

Early life and work

Pillsbury was born in Neuilly, France to Henry and Judy Pillsbury, Americans who moved to France in the mid-1960s. Pillsbury’s great, great grandfather Charles Alfred Pillsbury was a U.S. flour industrialist and founded the Pillsbury Company in 1872.

While in France, Pillsbury attended the École Alsacienne and graduated in 1991 with a concentration in History and Economics. Pillsbury then moved to the U.S. in 1991 to pursue a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art where he graduated in 1995. Also at Yale, he received the Ethel Child Walker Prize for outstanding undergraduate artist. He went on to complete his M.F.A at the School of Visual Arts in New York City in 2004.

Other influences

At age 10, Pillsbury had his only film role in the movie “Le Bon Plaisir” alongside actress Catherine Deneuve, who played his mother.

A class taught by Lois Conner during his freshman year at Yale initiated Pillsbury’s interest in photography as an art form. Pillsbury went on to purchase a large format 8x10 view camera, switching from a 35mm.