“The dreamlike world in Matuschka’s work is an exploration of flesh and steel, of the supple and mysterious container of the feminine torso against the cold sharpness of broken glass and peeling paint. All is in Ruin. The passion of life has degenerated and has been abandoned like an empty apartment with the wind passing through a broken window.”
Jay Spica, 1989 Freesia Magazine
Before Noon #2
1986-1991
Bohemia boomed in the early-eighties in New York. It was an era of cross-pollination between countercultures, and the art scenes— both Uptown and Downtown—bloomed with that new mixed-media creativity. Every artist, it seemed, was trying something new: poets became actors, sculptors dabbled in film making; singers painted, painters morphed into musicians.
This was a period where anyone with talent tried things that no one had studied in art school. Downtown, one might find JeanMichael Basquiat with his then-undiscovered girlfriend, Madonna, catch John Lurie hanging out with Jim Jarmusch; see The Misfits at CBGBs, or grab a drink at the madness of the Mudd Club.
Matuschka, meanwhile, could be found bumming around her now-native Upper East Side as the grungy downtown scene was too far away in those days: subways hardly ran, and if they did, it was normal to take two hours to get below 14th Street. Instead, the Eurostyle lounges such as Elaine, Maxines, and The Carlyle Hotel –the choice for Hollywood’s elite--- was where one could find an older generation of artists and writers, such as Normal Wexler, George Plimpton, Woody Allen, Warhol, and Anthony Haden-Guest for Matuschka to hang out with.
This transformational mood, however, is one which will ultimately suit the chameleon strength of an artist who had gone already from painter to model to writer—and was hurtling towards music and photography.
1984—in the wake of a difficult breakup— Matuschka wrote a song called The Ruins, which will land her an independent record deal in Europe. When the French record company asks the artist to come up with her own album-art, she happily complies: conceiving a series of nudes which will feature her own body, with a series of plaster-cast simulacrum, set against backdrops of decay.
Like The Phoenix, The Ruins will rise and become the first photographic body of selfportraiture which the artist directs entirely by herself. It is a remarkably complete, complex set of images, reflecting alienation, disillusionment, independence and isolation—a haunting world in which the realities of self-reliance are found
in the contrast of soft body against stark steel and peeling paint. The pictures are published internationally and find popularity in Europe, where photographs from The Ruins will come to grace the covers of three magazines in three different countries.
The Ruins are a breakthrough for Matuschka, her first major photographic success and the place where she learns the most important lesson any female artist can learn: do it yourself. This self-reliance reflects in the photographs themselves. Without a team or any high-end tools to help her, the artist designs scenes and sets which can be shot on her own—or with only minimal assistance. She chooses locations, styles herself, and sculpts her own casts, working briefly again with the famous Harpers Bizarre editorial photographer, Bill Silano (whom she apprenticed with as a photographic assistant in the 70s). In the summer of 1987, in the sweltering heat, Silano applies strips of plaster to her torso and creates her first plaster cast thus beginning a three-year intensive: making casts of every part of her body and dragging them to different locations to photograph.
For one shoot, Matuschka hauls the casts out to Jones beach—where she is almost arrested for indecent exposure while taking her own self-portrait amount facsimiles of herself. Most photos, however, are designed by the artist to be taken in abandoned spaces, including empty apartments in her own prewar building on East 87th Street which she managed briefly in the late 80s.
It is in The Ruins, too, that we see a theme emerge which will come to dominate Matuschka’s work: the unique beauty of something which has been broken. An artistic bloom fertilized by every false step that came before it, The Ruins represents a fusing of her frustrations into a set of potent, melancholic images, evocative of a once-fractured identity now filled in at the flaws with gold. It begins the artist’s self-exploration of her own alienation from her own form. In The Ruins, Matuschka takes a step back from her body to observe the image of herself in the form of a series of fractured plaster casts; shattered simulacrum that repeat images of her own broken body that will seem, in retrospect, like an eerie presentiment. Can a body in melancholy be beautiful? What about the body broken?
In her evocative series “The Ruins,” Matuschka ventures into a unique exploration of the human form, intertwining it with the essence of dilapidated spaces and the haunting allure of decay. This series is not merely a collection of images; it is an exploration into the realms of selfreflection and estrangement, where the artist confronts her physical and existential realities, weaving a narrative rich with themes of alienation and fantasy.
“The Ruins” created over 4 years, (1987-1991) serves as a metaphorical stage where Matuschka casts her own body in plaster. These plaster casts, stark and ghostly, emerge from their cocooning with a life of their own, echoing the majestic yet mysterious inner realms of a world gone by. Each cast becomes a reflective mirror, a hollow echo of the artists’ past, challenging the viewer to question the very essence of identity and existence.
Matuschka rejects traditional sculptural techniques that focus on replicating life through molds that treat the subject as ‘perfect and polished’ when finished. Instead, she embraces the imperfections and rawness of the plaster imprints, celebrating them as final artworks. Dubbing this process the “caterpillar effect,” she draws a poignant parallel to transformation and the ephemeral nature of life itself. These casts, set against the backdrop of crumbling interiors of abandoned buildings, do not merely occupy space; they engage in a silent yet potent dialogue with their surroundings, blurring the lines between past and present, presence and absence.
Each installation is carefully planned, with Matuschka sketching detailed layouts to ensure that her “sculptures” are strategically placed to maximize the interplay between environment and form. This fastidious orchestration transforms the decayed settings into symbolic “dollhouses of decay,” where each piece narrates a story of loss, resilience, and introspection. The interaction between the artist and these fragments of her “cast self” is a dance of shadows and echoes, a visual symphony that speaks to the fragmentation and fragility of life itself.
As Matuschka’s artistic journey with “The Ruins” evolved, so did the mediums through which she expressed her vision. What began as photographic exploration expanded into broader sculptural practices and mixed-media installations, eventually venturing into video art and even a film script. This multimedia approach allowed her to freeze moments of transformation in film, adding depth and motion to her exploration of form and time, further enriching the narrative woven throughout “The Ruins.”
The culmination of this extensive project marked “The Ruins” as a pivotal series in Matuschka’s career. Internationally recognized and featured in various prestigious publications and exhibitions, “The Ruins” stands as a testament to the power of artistic innovation and personal expression. It invites viewers into a contemplative space to reflect on the fleeting nature of existence and the enduring power of art to capture and transform the human condition.
Through “The Ruins,” Matuschka offers not just a visual and philosophical reflection on the intersections of body and space but a meditative insight into what it means to inhabit a transient shell, ultimately providing a profound commentary on the human journey through time and memory. This series is both intuitive and intellectual as she seeks to objectify the inner realty that lies beyond the visible appearances of life. An ardent admirer of the French Surrealists and the Taoists influences of the Far east, what impresses Matuschka most is the simplicity of forms and the external energy which when employed by the artist reveals the ‘inside of life’ or the mystic, and mysterious, product of the ‘imaginative wedding of spirit and reality.’
By blending the sensual, intellectual and structural matter of the forms, (i.e. being a cast, human flesh and her surroundings), Matuschka has created a superhuman female representing fortitude, agelessness, gentility and sexuality in her ruins’ compositions. The absence of inner struggles such as political commentary is replaced by the artists’ knowledge of human’s fancies, fantasies and emotions. Here she uses that information to communicate the intangible, the surreal, and beneath the surface humor.
Though her photographs are highly stylized, Matuschka allows her audience to recognize something which cannot be called only intellectual; only sensual, or only emotional. Instead, she communicates the ultimate reality of the subject by suggesting a mood and directing the viewer into his or her own fairytale.
-Fletcher Smith RP Parker Gallery
by Matuschka
And when it’s over before noon before the coffee and the spoon when one thing leads to another and we don’t know what to do with the ruins
When hope and helplessness collide I change my clothes and then my mind crazed and erotic it’s an error to await the good times or the terror
I’ll walk on broken glass backwards for you babe sit at home hug my roses alone you gave me 18, I only wanted twelve but I’ll never forget, no I’ll never regret I was your mother, your lover, your Venus the planet you could land on anytime
Can’t seem to leave it alone it’s just one more night on the phone strung out like a yo-yo in a windstorm cause I don’t know what to do with the ruins
Of all the choices we could make between the coffee and the cake we got hungry and out of hand and we didn’t know what to do with the ruins no we didn’t know what to do with the ruins
“There's something particularly spectacular about witnessing the resurrection of a once perfect situation. Like an ancient ruin whose lavish trappings fall into disrepair, and whose once proud grand stairwells now play host to a variety of insects and dust. Aren’t our bodies a bit like that?"
Matuschka
Matuschka, born in 1954, is an American photographer, artist, author and activist whose contributions to art and society have been recognized globally. She has produced abstract as well as expressionistic paintings; drawings; photographs; 3-D objects and furniture, but it is her photographs that have identified the artist as a master of the “self-portrait thru the lens”. Her photographic work has earned her a Pulitzer Prize nomination, a Gold from The World Press Foundation for “People in the News” and the Rachel Carson Award for her environmental activism among others.
The artist’s controversial self-portrait on the cover of The New York Times Magazine in 1993, was selected by LIFE for its special edition “100 Photographs that Changed the World” (published in 2003 and again in 2011). In 2011 Matuschka was featured in John Loengard’s The Age of Silver: Encounters with Great Photographers. Recently, her self-portrait collage, Mannequins on the Moon graced the cover of Giorgio Bonomi’s The Solitary Body: The Self-Portrait in Contemporary Photography, vol. IV. in 2025.
In 1974, Matuschka moved to NYC to attend the School of Visual Arts, studying with the painter Jennifer Bartlett and photographer Don Snyder. Arriving on the tail end of Warhol’s Factory, Matuschka began working with photographers Bill Silano, Gerald Malanga, and filmmaker Anton Perich. After leaving SVA, Matuschka worked in NYC and Europe as a model, scenic artist, video editor, window dresser and continued collaborating with illustrators, artists and photographers while pursuing her own artistic endeavors.
During the 80s Matuschka left the fashion industry to pursue photography exclusively. Her experience as a 70s fine art and fashion model primed her for the photographs she would create in the next 40 years. She would continue to use her body in her compositions, becoming both the subject and object of her photographs. Matuschka posed alongside plaster mannequins made from her body in dilapidated dwellings and called the series The Ruins. Later she would photograph herself in a variety of genders and races with message-oriented text describing the disparity among the sexes and various cultures and labeled that body of work: Double Drag. In the 90s she helped launch the breast cancer movement with her activistic photography and received many awards and citations for her series entitled Beauty out of Damage. Matuschka’s process for a photographic series always begins with drawings and sketches of a set she will build or a location she hopes to find. The artist will spend years on a series and her photographic prints reflect her trademark “chemically toning and solarization” to achieve a painterly effect. Often the artist works on the print with a variety of chemicals, dyes, paints, and chalk. The images evolve in stages, based on her responses to the photographic progress, i.e., the incidental details and the magical accidents that emerge in the darkroom or with printing on different papers.
Whether working with others, alone, or with an assistant, Matuschka is the author, director, make-up artist, hairstylist, wardrobe stylist, and master printer of the pictures she creates. Her photographs are included in the collections of the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, The Museum of the City of New York, The Cincinnati Art Museum, the Musee de l’Elysee Lausanne, The National Museum of Women in the Arts (Washington, DC); and the Howard Greenberg Collection at Suny Purchase, among others.
The Ruins series was published in many fine art magazines internationally, including the cover of P/F Professional Photography (the Netherlands), while exhibits were mounted at the Center for Photography at Woodstock and the Photographic Museum of Helsinki in Finland. The Ruins, based on Matuschka posing alongside plaster casts of her body in abandoned buildings, is considered to be her first major work known to the public.
EDUCATION
Born in 1954
1972: Windsor Mountain Prep School, Lenox, Mass
1973-1974: Prescott College, Prescott, Arizona
1974-1975: School of Visual Arts, New York, NY
Mentors: Jennifer Bartlett, Frank Roth, Don Snyder
APPRENTICESHIPS
1971 - 1973 Clemens Kalischer, Image Gallery, Stockbridge, MA
1973 - 1990 Don Snyder
1976 - 1977 William Silano
SELECT AWARDS
Pulitzer Prize Nomination, Feature Photography
Lucie Awards, The Abstract Portrait Project Competition, finalist U.S. Life Magazine Tribute: 100 Pictures that Changed the World U.S. World Press Photo Foundation: People in the News, Gold Award, Netherlands
Photo District News PDN/Nikon Self Promotion Award, U.S.
Graphis Inc., Best Environmental Poster of the Year, U.S. Center for Photography at Woodstock, Photographer’s Fellowship, U.S. NYFA: New York Foundation for the Arts, Catalogue Grant, NY, U.S.
Bunte Magazine Tribute: Women of the Nineties Who Changed the World, Germany
How Design Annual Merits, Business Collateral, U.S.
The Visual Club, Gold, Photographs Only, NY, U.S.
Art Matters Inc., NYC Fellowship, U.S.
Advertising and Design Club of Canada, Honor, Canada
American Design Century Potlatch, Design Merit, U.S.
Laguna Gloria Art Museum, Juror’s Merit Award, TX, U.S.
Magazine Cover: Society of Newspaper Design, Gold Award, U.S. Newswomen’s Club of New York, Front Page Award, U.S.
Society of Newspaper Design, Judges Special Recognition, Magazine Cover, U.S. Society of Newspaper Design, Gold Award, Photojournalism Feature, U.S. Society of Production Designers, Gold Award, U.S.
Art Director’s Club, Silver Award, U.S.
American Photography Top Ten, U.S.
Communication Arts Photography Annual, (2) Editorial Awards, U.S. Rachel Carson Institute, Rachel Carson Award, Chatham College, PA, U.S.
Nikon Award: Photo District News, U.S.
Salmagundi Fellowship, U.S.
Y2K books Certificate of excellence, University of California Press, U.S. Kennedy Center Very Special Arts, Certificate of Recognition Duke University, NC, nomination for Jonquils Award, U.S.
PEN Writers Grant, U.S.
SELECT CATALOGUES
2024 “The Solitude of the Origin of the World. Self-Portraits by Female Artists”, exhibition catalogue edited by Giorgio Bonomi, Trebisonda Contemporary Art Center, Italy
2022 “To Self-portrait”, exhibition catalogue, edited by Giorgio Bonomi and Chiara Guidoni, Galleria Indigo, Italy
2011 Heroínas o Víctimas, Matuschka Fotografías 1991–2003; Fotomanias (Malaga Spain)
1995 NYFA (New York Foundation for the Arts), Catalog Award
SOLO SHOWS
2013 Sohn Fine Art, “Body Biography”, Stockbridge, MA
2003
Schloss Corvey, “Matuschka - 30 Years Kulturkreis”, Hoxter, Germany AOK Galerie, “Matuschka-Retrospective”, Braunschweig, Germany
2002
University of Michagan, “One World: Rethinking Globalization”, Ann Arbor, Michigan Anthology Film Archives, “One World: Rethinking Globalization”, New York NY Smithtown Township Arts Council, “Matuschka: Paintings & Photographs”, Smithtown, LI
1998 Hiestand Gallery Miami University, “1/2 man 1/2 woman”, Oxford, Ohio
1997 AGNES Gallery, “Self Centered, A Retropective”, Birmingham, Alabama
1996
Hallisch-Frankischen Museum, “Beauty Out of Damage” (poster), Schwabisch Hall, Germany Vhs Photogalerie Treffpunkt, “Beauty Out of Damage” (catalogue), Stuttgart, Germany Houston Women’s Caucus for Art, “Off My Chest”, Houston, TX
1995
The New Art Center, “Matuschka, 1974 - 1994”, Newtonville, MA Agnes Gallery, “I Am One Woman”, Birmingham Alabama Frauen Museum, “Beauty Out of Damage” (poster), Wiesbaden, Germany
1994
Salt Lake City Art Center, “Invasive Art”, Salt Lake City, UT Spectrum Gallery, “Invasive Art” (poster), San Francisco, CA Women’s Art Gallery, The YWCA, “You Can’t Look Away Anymore” (poster), Charlotte, NC, Curated by Mark Leach of The Mint Museum of Art Jean Albano Gallery, “Modified Radical”, Chicago, IL
Laughlin Music Center, The Rachel Carson Institute at Chatham College, “Matuschka: Portraits 1987-1993”, Pittsburgh PA
1993 Martha Mabey Gallery, “Invasive Art”, Richmond, VA
1988 Forty Worth, “The Ruins”, New York, NY
1974 Bofus Gallery, “The Tragedy of a Space Condemned”, Prescott, AZ
1972 Lenox Library, “Locked Space”, Lenox, MA
PERMANENT
The Museum of the City of New York, New York, NY Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH
Musée de l’Élysée, Lausanne, Switzerland
Smithsonian Design Museum, Cooper Hewitt, New York, NY
National Museum of Women in the Arts; Washington, DC
Photographic Museum of Helsinki, Finland
Hällisch-Fränkischen Museum, Schwäbisch Hall, Germany
World Press Photo Foundation, Amsterdam, NL
Miniature Museum, Amsterdam, NL
Fleming Museum of Art, Burlington, VT Center for Photography, Woodstock, NY
Center for the Study of Political Graphics, Los Angeles, CA
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
Henry Buhl Foundation, NYC, NY
Broadway Video Enterprises, Lorne Michaels Collection, NYC, NY Deutches Hygiene-Museum, Dresden, Germany
SELECT INSTALLATIONS
2001 Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery University of the Arts, “One World: Window On Broad”, Philly, PA
1983 Windows at Bergdorf Goodman, “Shoe Scoops”, New York, NY
MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS (GROUP)
2017 New York Historical Society Museum, “The History of Tattoos”, New York, NY
2015 B.A.M. (Berkshire Art Museum), “Then and Now”, North Adams, MA
2010 Fratelli Alinari Museum of the History of Photography, “That Unstable Object of Desire”, Florence, Italy
2000 Musee de l’Elysee, “The Century of the Body”, Lausanne, Switzlerland
1999 Culturgest, “The Century of the Body”, Lisbon, Portugal
1998 The Parrish Art Museum, “The Hand Collection - Henry Buel”, Southampton, NY
1997
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, “The Human Body in Photography”, Montreal, Canada
The National Museum of Women in the Arts, “Perserving the Past, Securing the Future 19871997”, Washington, D.C.
1996
Cooper-Hewitt National Design, “Mixing Messages” (Catalogue) curated by Ellen Lupton, NY
Thread Waxing Space, New York, NY
Flemming Museum, “Photographs from the Permanent Collection”, Burlington, Vermont Glenbow Museum, “1996 Alberta Biennial”, Caligary, Alberta
1994
Cincinnati Art Museum, “Photographs from the Permanent Collection”, Cincinnati, OH Wexner Center, “Picture Lock: 25 Years of Film/Video Residencies at the Wex”, Colombus, Ohio Laguna Gloria Art Museum, “Self Possessed” (Catalogue), curated by Lynn Zelevansky, Curatorial Assistant at Museum of Modern Art, Austin, TX, The Bowers Museum, “Memories, Milestones and Miracles”, Orange County, CA
1991 Photographic Museum of Helsinki, “Three Women”, Helsinki, Finland
SELECT JURY SHOWS
1996
The Print Club Philadelphia, “Select Photographs”, PA, Philadelphia
The Visual Club, “Which Side Do You Want?”, New York, NY
The Center For Photography at Woodstock, “The Hand”, Kingston, NY
1995
University of Michigan, School of Art, “This Ability”, Ann Arbor, MI
Texas A & M Univeristy, University Art Galleries, “Body Politics”, College Station, TX
SELECT GROUP SHOWS
2015 Alexendre Gertsman Contemporary Art, “Manipulations”, New York, NY
2011 Cultural Art Center with Foto Mania, “Heroine or Victim?”, Malaga, Spain
2007 Carrie Haddad Gallery, “Photo Biennial”, Hudson, NY
2006
Woodstock Center of Photography in Collaboration with the Samuel Dorsky Museum of ART Woodstock, “Relationships: A Ten Year Bond” Selections from CPW’s Permanent Print Collection, New Paltz, NY
2002
The Dennos Museum Center, “Art.Rage.Us”, The Dennos Museum Center, Traverse City, MI Fordham University at Lincoln Center NYC, “What’s Your Problem: Graphic Design with Conscience”, New York, NY
2000
The Pao Gallery Hong Kong Arts Center, “Art Rage Us”, Hong Kong Herron Gallery, “Art.Rage.Us”, Indianapolis, In.
1997
Exit ART, “Public Notice”, New York, NY Houston Center for Photography Houston, “Body Politics”, Houston, TX
1994
Center for Photography at Woodstock, “Invasive Art”, Kingston, NY World Press Photo Exhibition, “Winners of the 1994 Photo Competition” (catalogue), Amsterdam, NL and traveling exhibition world wide.
1993
The Rotunda in association with The Nat’l Museum of Women in the Arts, “Only For Women”, Washington, DC. and tours Belgium through 1996
G. Ray Hawkins Gallery, “Select Photos”, Santa Monica, CA
1982 RK Parker Gallery, New York, NY
POSTER COMMISSIONS
1996 Greenpeace, “Time For Prevention” (Award) 1992 WHAM, “Vote For Yourself”, U.S.
SPECIAL CITATIONS, HONORS & TRIBUTES
2012 SEMANA Magazine, Edición de Aniversario 30th Anniversary 30 Anos Imagines; Colombia 2011 Aperture Foundation, The Photographs: 30 years of The New York Times most important photos published in the Sunday Magazine, edited by Kathy Ryan, NY 2003 & 2011 Life Books Special Edition: 100 Photographs that Changed the World; Life Inc, U.S. 1998 Bunte Magazine Tribute, “Women of the Nineties Who Changed the World”, Germany 1993 ABC Person of the Week, Worldwide News with Peter Jennings, U.S.
SELECT COVERS
2004 Portsmith Herald, NH, U.S.
1998
News Austria, Austria
UC Press, “Bad Girls and Sick Boys”, U.S.
1997
The Ottawa Citizen, “Beyond Surviving, the Art of Thriving”, Canada The Kingston Whig Standard “Triumph Over Tragedy”, Canada
1996
News Austria, Austria EMMA MAGAZIN, Germany
1995
Gauntlet Magazine, NY, U.S.
The Guardian, ENGLAND
1994
Maclean’s Magazine, Canada
El Mundo Magazine, Spain
Outtakes, NY, U.S.
Wochenpost, Germany
Max Magazin, “Bilder des Jahres 1993”, Germany
1993
The New York Times Sunday Magazine, “You Can’t Look Away Anymore”, U.S. DIE ZEIT, Germany
Foto Magazine, Netherlands DAZ Magazin, Switzerland
1991
KAMERA Magazine
French Photo
1990 P/F (Professional Photography), NL
SELECT PUBLICATIONS
2025
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC., “Feminist Film Philosophy Reader”, England Centro Arte Trebisonda, “The Solitude of the Origin of the World. Self-Portraits of Artists”, curated by Giorgio Bonomi, Italy
2022 The Artful Mind Artzine, The Artful Mind, U.S.
2019
Affirm Press, “I’m Perfect” by Dr. Lee Kofman, Australia
35 mm LCC, 35MM Volume II., U.S.
2018
The New York Times, “A Cover Photo Legacy, 25 Years Later”, U.S. Life Books (Life Inc.) Special Edition: “100 Photographs That Changed the World”, U.S.
2017
Rubbettino, Giorgio Bonomi, “The Solitary Body. The Self-Portrait in Contemporary Photography”, vol. II, Italy
2011 PowerHouse Books, “Age of Silver: Encounters with Great Photographers”, U.S.
2010 Fratelli Alinari, “That Unstable Object of Desire: Images of the female breast by masters of photography.”, Italy
2009
Hard Press Editions, “Bagit! Matuschka’s book of abstract prints and postcards”, U.S. Oxford University Press, “Staring: The Way We Look. New York.” Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, U.S.
2006
Pearson Custom Publishing, “Rhetorical Visions: Writing and Reading in a visual Culture”, U.S.
The Artful Mind, Feature/essay, U.S.
The Artful Mind Artzine, The Artful Mind, U.S.
P/F Amsterdam: HermanHoeneveld, “Over fotografen”, Netherlands
Glamour Magazine, “People in the News: Matuschka’s Transformation”, Germany
2005
Oxford University Press, “Woman’s Realities Women’s Choices: An Introduction to Women’s Studies” (3rd Edition), England
2004
Tattoos for Women, “Matuschka’s Skin Art Transformation”, U.S. Oxford University Press: International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education “Case Re-examined”, England
2003 Westfalien Blatt, “Kurzinterview: Matuschka Werke im Schloss Corvey”, Germany
2002
German Vogue, Germany
The Ann Arbor News, “Photographer looks within to dramatize her world view” by John Carlos Cantu, U.S.
2001
American Literary History (Oxford Fall 2001) “Woman as Ruin” Tacey A. Rosolowski, England Arena Editions, “Beauty’s Nothing”, Nadav Kander, England
2000 Dazed & Confused, Interview by Rachel Newsome/photos by Nick Knight, England
1999
Indiana Univ. Press, “Figuring Age: Women, Bodies, Generations” Nancy Miller, U.S. Der Spiegel, Personalien, Germany
1998
Aperture, “Master Breasts”, U.S. Chronicle Books, “Art. Rage Us.”, U.S.
University of California Press, “Bad Girls and Sick Boys”, Linda Kauffman, U.S. Addison, Wesley & Longman, “Confronting Sexism & Violence Against Women” Karen Stout & Beverly McPhail, U.S.
1997
The Kingston Whig Standard, “Portriat of an Activist”, Canada Bunte, “Matuschka Interview”, Germany
1996 Stern, Zeitgeschehen: “Der Mut Zum Ich Muss Erst Wieder Kommen”, Germany
1995
HQ Magazine, “Beauty and the Breast” by Fiona Brook, Australia
The Boston Globe, “Names and Faces” by Susan Bickelhaupt and Ellen O’Brien, U.S.
The Boston Tab “Body of Work” by M.Darsie Alexander, U.S.
The Boston Herald “Beauty in the Body” by Joanne Silver, U.S. Art New England, Newton Graphic “Matuschka focuses on the ‘body politics’” review by Meredith Fife Day, U.S.
The Birmingham News “Art Happenings” by James R. Nelson, England
1994
Simon & Schuster, Mehuron, Kate and Gary Percesepe.: “Free Spirits: Feminist Philosophers on Culture”, U.S.
San Francisco Focus, “Photography: The Art of Survival”, U.S.
Chicago Tribune “No Time for this” Section2, (Greenpeace poster), U.S Chicago Tribune “Highlights: Exhibit of Photos Displays an Advocates Body of Work” by Margaret Carroll, U.S.
The Guardian, “Beauty Out of Damage”, England
Options Magazine, “Look & Learn”, England
Thames & Hudson, William Ewing: “The Body: Master Photographs of the Human Form”, England
Der Spiegel, “Gewusel am Tator”, Germany
Marie Claire, “Ich bin schoen”, Germany
Focus Magazine, Germany
Stern, “Versteckt euch nicht”, Germany
Sonntags Zeitung, “Prominente brechen Tabus — und die Welt holt auf”, Germany
Vogue, “Ouverture”, Germany
Bunte, “Women of the Nineties Who Changed the World”, Germany
Sette Magazine, Italy
1993
The Edmonton Journal, “This Self-Portrait of Matuschka” by Liane Faulder, Canada
Chicago Tribune “Picture Unleashed a Building Storm” by Mary Schmich, U.S.
Glamour Magazine, “Why I Did It”, Germany
BILD, “Mit diesem Foto will ich Frauen Mut machen”, Germany
Stern, “Das War 1993 Leute”, Germany
Der Spiegel, “Peronalien”, Germany
Die Zeit, “Das bin ich” by Claudia Steinberg, Germany
Marie Claire, “Schock” by Friederike Albat, Germany
Die Woche, Germany
Panorama Magazine, “Per non girare lo sguardo”, Italy
1991
Kamera Magazine, “Three Women”, Finland
French Foto, “Nouvelle Tendances”, France
www.matuschka.net
+1 (646) 408-7818
matuschka@verizon.net
@Matuschkafinearts
Cover Design: Matuschka
Book Design: Karla Gruss
Model: Matuschka
Narration: Karla Gruss
Publisher: Pinky Toe Press
1987-1991
Copyright © 2026 Matuschka & Co., All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
“Some photographers are perfectly in sync with their subject when visually bringing its story to life. Accomplished photographers have an individual style that has evolved from their strong point of view or the way they see the world through the camera lens after years of concentrated and deliberate work. I have seen the incredible possibilites that are created when there is a good pairing of subject and photographer. I have also seen the failure when there is a mismatch.
Matuschka’s photographs of theme created projects represent one of those ideal matches. Her passion and talent for being in the organic world as the eye and discipline to graphically illustrate such complex concepts.”
Jim Brandenburg, 1992 American Photographer
and Filmmaker