February’s featured artist at the Margaret Harwell Art Museum in Poplar Bluff is local photographer Corey Matthews.
“We are really excited to have a local talent like Corey to represent Black History Month,” said museum director Steve Whitworth. “We were looking for some way to celebrate that, and I was thrilled to death to have the opportunity to showcase his talent.”
The “Around the World with Corey” show will kick off with a reception from 6-8 p.m. Saturday at the museum. Matthews, who has traveled extensively the last few years, will be on hand.
“We’re going to have so much fun at the reception, where he can tell us the back story on each photo,” Whitworth said. “I encourage everybody to come to the reception to hear him.”
All photographs on display will be available for purchase, and Matthews is planning to hold a drawing for five portrait sessions at the event.
Whitworth described Matthews as a local resident “whose talent has taken him around the world. His photos are just incredible, and he’s had life experiences I can’t even dream of.”
Matthews said he plans to have “30 or 35 photos” on display during the show.
Many will be locally produced, while others will be from places he’s traveled to, including Dubai, Qatar and Kuwait.
The show also will feature what Matthews describes as “street photography.”
“Some of the street photography is pretty cool, especially in another country,” Matthews said.
Many of his subjects were “happy and ecstatic to be photographed by an American,” he said.
A favorite photograph in the show, Matthews said, is of two friends he made on the beach in the Middle East.
“They were walking at the beach, and one stopped me and said ‘we knew you were from the USA and we wanted to know what life was like there.’
“They were just so interested in what we were doing.”
Another favorite, Matthews said, is a photograph of a Pakistani man who was tasked with keeping the beaches clean.
“He couldn’t speak English, and me and my friends would always see him out at the beach, where he was always picking up trash. He would speak, and I would greet him back,” Matthews recalled.
“After a couple days, he was comfortable with me taking his photo, and I took one of him just gazing into the sun. His face just told the story of hope,” he said.
Whitworth said he believes the show will be a big success because there “is a lot of interest in photography in town, and this is a great opportunity to learn and see what great photography can become.
“For Poplar Bluff to be able to learn from this type of talent is great for the whole community.”
“Around the World with Corey” will be on display at the Margaret Harwell Art Museum through Feb. 28.