Matei Glass (Joseph Winterfeld), Montreal, 1956. He leaves Canada in the mid 80’s and bases himself in Paris, from where he begins a long period of travel in the in Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union and China. In 1986, he begins to publish and exhibit his photographic projects.

While initially dealing with the documentary and the historical , Matei Glass’ images begin to include an exploration of the autobigraphical dimension. Examining the representation of absence and identity, his most recent work explores the resonant space between the personal and the political. Indeed, a constant theme in his recent work is the tension between the image maker’s role as a maker of meaning and that of the medium itself. He wants to test this relationship, stepping in and out of the shadows, appearing and disappearing in the visual stories he tells.

The physical scale and the nature of the information contained in his large format exhibition images makes it necessary to experience them over time, as complex physical objects intended to engulf the viewer. Assembled in the exhibition space, his images are intended to make strong connections between disparate scenes and events hopefully making the viewer feel implicated both in individual scenes and a larger web of related phenomena, opening up questions about politics, power and representation. Through this work he proposes to examine the relationship between the personal and the political, along with the limits or extensions of each.

Matei Glass’ images, installations and video work have been exhibited internationally and are to be found in noted public and private collections. His book The Other in Palestine and video Magnetic Identities were laureate in 2004 for the Prix du Dialogue de l’Humanité, at the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie at Arles in France.
Matei Glass has lived in Barcelona since 1995.