Mattrothphoto

05/06/2025

Well if the isn’t a blast, I don’t know what is! This was the 25th year the hosted this whacky competition and I got to photograph it for ! Thanks for the assignment and also putting together a really cool multimedia piece. And wrote the piece.
Also …let me know if you spot the pug ;)

04/29/2025

Wow! I can’t believe it’s been 10 years since the Orioles played the White Sox to ZERO fans during the Freddie Gray uprising. What a surreal ESPN assignment.
-Orioles center Fielder Adam Jones blows a bubble with his gum during the national anthem. The civil unrest in Baltimore has forced the game between the Chicago White Sox and Baltimore Orioles to be closed to the public.
-The line up board shows the official attendance number, “0,” vs max capacity, “299,598.”
-Pre-game prep.
-Media gather atop the grandstand to photograph the National Anthem During the first half of the game us photographers were only allowed to work in the photo wells — except during the first inning, where two groups would be able to shoot at the grand stand over first base or in center field (where I was). We were later allowed to wander around the lower seating areas — where we could make more interesting photos of this historic game.
-Orioles starting pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez.
-A fan outside the gates at Camden Yards holds a sign saying “Don’t Forget Freddie Gray.”
-Orioles center fielder Adam Jones hits a double off White Sox reliever Scott Carroll in the bottom of the 7th.
-The empty stadium remains quiet as Orioles 3rd Baseman Manny Machado gets hi-fives after his solo home run in the fifth inning.
-The closed up concession stands.
-Orioles closer Zach Britton takes signals at the top of the 9th.
-A police officer stands outside a locked entrance to Camden Yards.
-Orioles manager Buck Showalter is interviewed after the Orioles’ 8-2 win.
-Orioles line up to congratulate each other after the win.
-A news helicopter covering the Freddie Gray riots and protests flies past Oriole Park at Camden Yards after the game.

04/06/2025

Back in 2011 I had the privilege to photograph Alex Ovechkin for the Sporting News (thanks ). Congrats for being the NHL’s all time goal leader!

07/10/2024

Just kickin’ it at the hotel.

07/29/2023

.and.wool won ’s for best !!! AND Tarah gave me just the nicest compliment in her stories — it’s in my stories + preserved in my Clips archive.

06/30/2022

CONGRATS !!! I had the incredible privilege to photograph President Biden’s formal nomination of now Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson back in February. Today she was sworn in!

Folks showed up on that crisp February evening to the Supreme Court to rally her nomination.

07/06/2021

First off… I love LOVE Ekiben. And the owners are RAAAAAADDDD, too!!!! As you can see by the photo, Ephrem Abebe and Steve Chu are a fun-loving duo, and were game for some silliness during our Baltimore Magazine shoot. It yielded one of my favorite photos from the past few years. I’ve licensed a safer version of this photo to a few different outlets, but this one is very “on-brand” for me.

I could wax poetic about how Steve Chu and Ephrem Abebe are the embodiment of the American Dream — first generation immigrant milenials who start a super-successful and beloved restaurant, only to open another, which was equally successful despite (and maybe because of) the pandemic. And maybe tie-in the crazy, terrible stuff happening to immigrants, Asian Americans, and Black people in this country — but I won’t. Y’all know where your hearts are. But I WILL tell you about their journey to Vermont earlier this year. …briefly. (I’m running out of copy space :) A regular’s mother-in-law (who lives in Vermont) fell madly in love with Ekiben’s broccoli tempura, joking that she wished it to be served to her on her deathbed. In a dark turn, she was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. Knowing broccoli tempura wouldn’t last the 6 hour drive to Vermont from Baltimore, her son-in-law asked the Ekiben guys for the recipe so he could make the it for his mother-in-law. But you know what these guys did? THEY DROVE UP TO VERMONT! And made if for her in the back of their pick up truck. Look it up. There are a few stories online. Like I said, Steve and Ephrem are RAAAAAD!!!!

05/31/2021

Who ways pictures of can’t be ???

04/12/2021

Y’all!!! I got another assignment from on Sunday! I made a portrait of Karim Amin at the Gwynn Oak Islamic Community in Baltimore for a story about Ramadan in the age of COVID. Last year Ramadan intersected with quarantining. “It hurt not to be around everybody [last spring], but we did a lot of dope things,” said Karim. And now I’m paraphrasing from Michelle Boorstein’s article, Communal Zoom prayers, reading Ramadan books to youngsters, a car parade for Eid al-Fitr, the last day or Ramadan.

Karim is super cool. Check out his sweet jacket and those gold and white Air Jordans! And he’s stoked about Ramadan. He told me he was sick a few years ago, and couldn’t participate in all the Ramadan activities. Rather than focusing on the suffering associated with fasting, he realized he really missed his community. He was super aware of the “serious Muslim” image often seen when media covers Ramadan. Heh... of course, the photo that ran is pretty serious looking. I do think he looks great, though.

Near the end of our shoot, we got to know each other a bit better, and we loosened up. And I asked him to show me how excited he was for Ramadan to start. Aaaaaand, I think you’ll see how stoked he is in the last photo.

What a treat for me to meet Karim!

02/18/2021

This was a surreal assignment for me. Crystal Hardy-Flowers, owner and founder of Little Flowers Early Childhood and Development Center, died from COVID-19 complications December 31st. She was 55. Her daycare, located in the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood of West Baltimore, re-opened from winter break Monday January 11th, with her absence felt by staff and the older students. My two boys were in daycare when I was making pictures for this project — which, is amazing, btw. It’s about . More specifically how deaths effect different slices of American life throughout the country.

It features photos by Kimberly Workman &
It’s a really good piece and, as a bonus, a relatively short engaging read.

01/20/2021

GUYS! Look who I got to meet! ...back in 2018. was suuuuch a nice guy. He was campaigning for NY Rep. Antonio Delgado and he was refreshingly stoked to be at the rally. I was photographing for ’s direct mail consultant.

Ugh. That man really knows how to wear a suit. And then there’s my beard. 😕

01/04/2021

This page will most likely be a catcher’s mitt for my Instagram page:

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