Matt Collishaw is a British photographer and artist who has been exhibiting his work since the late 1980s. He is best known for his large-scale photographs that explore themes of mortality, beauty, and the human condition.
Collishaw was born in Nottingham, England in 1966. He studied at Trent Polytechnic (now Nottingham Trent University) from 1985 to 1988, where he received a BA in Fine Art. After graduating, he moved to London and began exhibiting his work in galleries and museums around the world. His first solo exhibition was held at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London in 1989.
Collishaw's work often features images of death and decay, such as skulls or decaying flowers. He has also explored themes of beauty and sexuality through his photographs of nudes or portraits of people with tattoos or piercings. His work has been exhibited at major institutions such as the Tate Modern, the Victoria & Albert Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
In addition to photography, Collishaw has also worked with video art and installation pieces. In 2010 he created a large-scale installation piece called "Bullet Hole" which featured a life-size replica of a bullet hole surrounded by hundreds of tiny mirrors that reflected light onto the walls around it. The piece was exhibited at the Tate Britain in London and later acquired by the museum for its permanent collection.
Collishaw continues to exhibit his work internationally and is currently based in London where he lives with his wife and two children.