Molly Matalon’s Photography Deals With Desire, Womanhood, And Watermelons

From experimental and documentary to portraiture and still life, Matalon’s light-filled compositions are full of romance. Her work is a visual study of themes including womanhood, idealization, relationship dynamics, and desire, taking on an almost tactile quality: the crispness of fresh flowers, the sweetness of fruits, golden hour sun blushed against the faces of friends and lovers. Matalon’s color palette is faultless—off white tones are interspersed with bright yellows and royal blues, and shadow and sun are used to her aesthetic advantage. In an interview with It’s Nice That, Matalon explains her thought process: “I’m always thinking about sex and femininity, it’s just taking a new form lately,” she says. “I’ve been thinking about romance in the classical sense and in the contemporary sense. The photographs suggest romance in a sort-of fantasy world.”