Chris Motta
The camera has always been a nonverbal expression. I tend to feel a lot, and the words to fully articulate those feelings don't always come. Photography — and later film — became the vehicle for what I couldn't seem to organize with language.
For twenty years I've made work about the places where human aspiration leaves its mark — playgrounds and roller coasters gone quiet, marathon routes walked in solitude, coastlines where people I loved once stood. I grew up in New England, studied philosophy before I studied photography, and have spent most of my adult life moving between the mountains, the ocean, and the spaces in between, trying to understand what places hold after the living has moved on.
I work in still photography, documentary film, and camera operation. I'm drawn to difficult conditions — physical, environmental, emotional — because that's where I tend to see most clearly.
Experience
Motion:
Camera Operator
Documentary camera
Documentary film editing
Film and commercial coloring
Software:
Macintosh OS workflow
Adobe Photoshop CC
Adobe Lightroom CC
Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe Audition
Davinci Resolve
Camera:
Professional digital cinema cameras
Camera
Extensive experience operating Canon and Sony
Post-production color pipeline
Editing and coloring knowledge
Professional Background (Still Photography)
Education
MFA in Photography, Cranbrook Academy of Art, 2007
BA in Philosophy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, 1998
Photography Department, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, MA, 1999–2004
Documentary Filmmaking, Massachusetts College of Art & Design, 2019
Filmmaking, Cinematography, Editing, and Coloring, Maine Media Workshops, 2019-Present
National Outdoor Leadership School, Rockies Semester Course, Lander, WY, 1996
Teaching Experience
Lecturer, Photography, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 2016-2018
Lecturer, Photography, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, MA, 2012
Color Darkroom, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI, 2006–07