Cleaning the Lens

Matthew Fowler - At one of the numerous sports I have photographed, Nascar at Kansas Speedway in October of 2012.

It has been quite a while since I have posted here I know, but it has been a super fast and awesome time. With that said my goal is going to be to post on here at least once a week. The content will range from breaking news, sports and portraits along with some video and broadcasting work. Over the past year and a half so many wonderful things have happened to me and my photography. In July of 2012  I became the Photo Editor at The Emporia Gazette just several months after documenting the devastating Reading Kansas tornado. In February of 2012 the biggest story of my career thus far was the Harveyville Kansas tornado. Growing up in Emporia Kansas all my life right in tornado alley I had never once seen a tornado until I became a journalist. After witnessing their destruction  I am okay with that. The Harveyville tornado was very strange happening this early in the year when most severe storms happen in the spring in Kansas. Harveyville is about 35 miles from my home about directly North so when I heard the scanner go off that night looking for first responders I jumped in my car with just my camera bag. After waiting quite a while at the check point just on the out skirts of town they finally took the media inside town. This is about the only good photograph I got that night but it was the only one I needed that night to tell the story of what happened.

Matthew Fowler - Harveyville hours after the tornado ripped through town.

This photo the next day ran on the front page of many large newspapers across the country including the front page of the Washington Post.

Stay Tuned to the blog for more of my work.
-Matt