BIOGRAPHY

MICHELE MATTEI was born in Paris, France. She prepared l’ Ecole Normale Superieure and obtained a BA in literature and history. She was invited to study Political Sciences at the University of Chile. THE JOURNALIST BEGINNINGS It is in Chile that Mattei began her career in journalism. Gamma, the world-renowned French photo agency engaged her to open their first Latin American bureau. During this time she traveled throughout the Latin American continent to cover political stories. She obtained exclusive interviews with several heads of state, including Eduardo Frei, Salvador Allende, Augusto Pinochet, the Presidents of Chile and Juan and Isabel Peron, the Presidents of Argentina. As the political situation became more dangerous and kidnappings were a daily occurrence, Gamma convinced her to relocate back to Europe. Instead, she opened Gamma’s first bureau in California. Soon after, she initiated her own agency supplying photographs and texts to a media network in twenty countries. BECOMING A PHOTOGRAPHER Mattei left her agency, after much success, to become a photographer. Keen to develop her talent and to actively pursue her new venture, she accepted a wide variety of assignments -- portraiture, photojournalism, major magazine articles and product advertising. She served as the photographic designer on “How Quietly We Cry,” a play about child abuse and worked as a special assignment photographer on numerous motion pictures. WORKING AS A PHOTOJOURNALIST As a photojournalist, Mattei traveled throughout the world covering such diverse subjects as civil unrest in Central America, environmental problems in Russia and the Baltic Republics, near extinct tribes in Latin American and women’s issues worldwide. Currently, Mattei work has included projects such as a photographic essay on the men and women in Silicon Valley, California, who have helped revolutionize our lives with technology, a series on women producers in Hollywood, a project for Public Access Television on child abuse, a study on the effects of silicone on women's bodies and a reportage on transsexuals. CREATIVE RESOURCING IN FILM AND STAGE During this time, Mattei also followed a variety of creative endeavors, to deepen her creative resources. She co-produced the “New Playwrights Writing Series” which is dedicated to the development of new material for the stage and the revival of the classics. She is a founding member of the award-winning Wilton Project, a Los Angeles-based theater company. She wrote and co-produced “The Longest Holiday,” a one-hour video program on the joys of aging, which was selected for the New York Film Festival and broadcast worldwide. In 2007 Michele filmed a documentary in Ethiopia “Through This World But Once,” produced by Wayne Schoenfeld on the mission of the ROTAPLAST team of doctors who travel remote locations to repair children’s cleft palate and physical disfiguration. Part of the documentary was used for Rotaplast’s fund raising activities. A one-hour version will be distributed in Europe and Canada. PHOTOGRAPHY IN ADVERTISING AND EDITORIAL VENUES She is actively involved in advertising campaigns and works with major magazines such as Paris Match, Vogue International, G.Q., Stern, Amica and Figaro Madame. To date she has interviewed and photographed artists as diverse as Jorge Luis Borges, Eugene Ionesco, Francis Ford Coppola, Richard Gere, Clint Eastwood, David Lynch and T.C. Boyle. Just recently, Mattei’s work was awarded at the prestigious Advertising Photographers Association Awards. At the present time, she has three illustrated books in various stages of development. FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY As Mattei continues to pursue exposure in her fine art photography she has had several exhibits sponsored by Medical Aid for El Salvador and by The Hollywood Women's Political Committee. Her photographs on the theater were shown at Center Films Studio in Hollywood and her portraits of artists were exposed at the gallery "Les Arts," in Pasadena. Penetrating portraits of Louise Bourgeois have been exhibited at various museum in European. For two years she weighed in on other artists as Mattei sat on the Print and Drawing Board at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art from 2005/2006. Currently, she is continuing an extraordinary photographic series on select women in their latter years -- Louise Bourgeois, Agnes Martin, Beatrice Wood, Lillian Bassman, Andree Putman, June Wayne… “Fabulous!” is the word that come to mind when meeting these powerful and dynamic women who are at their most creative and prolific in their late seventies. Mattei is represented in London at Lucy B. Campbell. The gallery has presented some of her work at the London Art Fair in October and The Dubai Art Festival last February. She has also been show at Tim Yarger Gallery in Bangkok. Her most recent series on butterflies- The Imago Series- and on flowers - Style, Stigma and Stamen" are attracting a great deal of attention and very strong sales commissions.