About

Katherine Oktober Matthews (b. 1980, USA) is an artist, analyst, and author based in The Netherlands. Her self-published book I Love Animals (2017) was shortlisted for the Arles Photobook Award and selected for the Athens Photo Festival book exhibition. Her book Elsewhere, a photo | personal essay, is forthcoming from Leaping Man.

In addition to her own creative practice, she is an authority in the international photography art world as an editor, journalist, and critic, most notably in her former role as Chief Editor of GUP Magazine. She is the author of Unique: Making Photographs in the Age of Ubiquity (2018), and is a freelance mentor and consultant to working artists and creative entrepreneurs. She was described by journalist Manami Okazaki as being among “the most iconic ‘toy camera’/ cult photographers” and by Life Framer as “a passionate thinker, and an advocate and champion for the photographic arts.”

With a university degree in psychology and a work background in IT and the arts, she now works at the confluence of technology, psychology and expression. In 2017, she founded Riding the Dragon, an online platform dedicated to consolations on the challenge of creation, and in 2018, she launched the independent publishing imprint House of Oktober as well as Useful., an online platform of activities to explore meaning and fulfillment in the new world of automation and post-work. She aims to leave the world more beautiful, intelligent, and compassionate than how she found it.

Her text and images have been published in numerous books (including Toy Tokyo, White Rabbit Fever, Amsterdam… The Essence, NEW Dutch Photography 2012), journals (Mensa World Journal, Contact Sheet, VLAK, Analog Journal, KNiK), print magazines/newspapers (AmsterDO, TimeOut Amsterdam) and online platforms (Libération, Slate, John Adams Institute, New Dawn, TEDxAmsterdam, Versal Blog).

Biographical articles

A selection of interviews with, and articles about, Katherine Oktober Matthews.

• Biography

Interview on the Wise Fool Podcast

March 16, 2022

“People really love it when you make the same compromises that they do, because it justifies them.” —Katherine Oktober Matthews (The Wise Fool Podcast, 2022)

Between Realities: A Lecture at the Fachhochschule Dortmund

January 20, 2017

 I gave a lecture at the Fochhochschule Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts…

Interview with Katherine Oktober Matthews on Life Framer (Open Call)

June 25, 2016

“In the end, I think we’re all looking for ways to mainline existence, to achieve a more direct way of tapping into ourselves, other people and our environments. That desire is replete with risks, but let’s not kid ourselves, life is a bloodsport.”
—Katherine Oktober Matthews (Life Framer, 2016)

Interview with Katherine Oktober Matthews in XOXO Magazine

August 27, 2015

"When something interests me, I follow it for a while to see where it leads."
—Katherine Oktober Matthews (XOXO The Mag, 2015)

Interview with Katherine Oktober Matthews on Life Framer (Urban Life)

November 8, 2014

“And I’ve been frustrated sometimes for want of a role model that simply isn’t there, but a big part of coming-of-age as an artist is realizing that very terrifying thing: you cannot follow anybody else anymore.”
—Katherine Oktober Matthews (Life Framer, 2014)

Interview with Katherine Oktober Matthews on TEDxAmsterdam

September 6, 2014

“It’s good to have critics, because they force you to work harder and make your case.”
—Katherine Oktober Matthews (TEDxAmsterdam)

Interview for Toy Tokyo

July 27, 2014

"Sometimes my friends tell me stories of things that I know never happened – but how can you prove whose memory is correct? Photographs don’t prove anything because they’re not facts, they’re narratives."
—Katherine Oktober Matthews (Toy Tokyo, 2014)

Respect the Medium

September 13, 2013

Firestarters has posted a short interview with me, about the upcoming portfolio review GUP has…