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Subcribe to comment rss feedThe Patient Collector: Fragments, Forms, and Found Light
Matt Payne
Matt Payne is a landscape photographer and mountain climber from Durango, Colorado. He’s the host of the weekly landscape photography podcast, “F-Stop Collaborate and Listen,” co-founder of the Nature First Photography Alliance, and co-founder of the Natural Landscape Photography Awards. He lives with his wife, Angela, his son Quinn, and his four cats, Juju, Chara, Arrow, and Vestal.
Alex Jones photographs like a designer sifting through an antique store: patiently, curiously, and with a deep reverence for form. His work is not loud; it does not insist. Instead, it invites us to look closer, to notice the quiet details that most would overlook. Each image feels like a found object, carefully selected for its texture, its geometry, or its subtle interplay of light and shadow. This impulse - to collect, to notice, and to preserve is no accident. It traces back to Alex’s childhood, shaped by the dual influences of the natural world and the world of design.
Raised in Tampa, Florida, Alex grew up with architect parents and a mother who was both a connoisseur of good design and a relentless seeker of overlooked treasures. His mother's passion for architecture, furniture, and art museums found a natural extension in her love for thrift stores; she would spend hours searching for the right curve of a chair leg or the perfect vintage lamp.
This aesthetic foundation, rooted in shape, structure, and patient discovery, would later resurface in his photography; but not right away. As a teenager, Alex took a black and white film class that gave him his first real exposure to photography. It planted a seed, but one that lay dormant for years. Instead, he followed a different passion: snowboarding. A high school trip to Utah had introduced him to real mountains for the first time, and the thrill of carving through snow quickly became a lifelong pursuit. That passion pulled him west, where he spent two years as a self-described “ski bum” in Park City. Surrounded by mountains and immersed in the rhythm of outdoor life, his appreciation for nature deepened.