Matthew Irving grew up in the tiny town of Mountain Lakes, New Jersey, where he began shooting Super-8mm movies with his brother at the age of nine. Upon migrating to California to attend Stanford University, Irving quickly seized the opportunity to dive into the professional world of filmmaking. He took part in an internship at Lucasfilm's special effects facility, Industrial Light and Magic, and went on to make the most of San Francisco's thriving independent film community by producing, directing, and photographing his own 16mm short narratives. After graduating Stanford with dual BAs in English and Communications, Irving moved to Los Angeles, where he attended the graduate program at the University of Southern California's School of Cinema/Television. It was during these years that his passion for cinematography came into sharp focus, when more and more of his fellow students began asking him to shoot their projects. Since completing the USC program in 1996, Irving has been the Director of Photography on numerous feature films and short subjects, and even a travel/reality television show. On April 30th, 2005, Irving married the love of his life, director/producer/actress Cindy Baer in Yosemite National Park.
B I O G R A P H Y
As Director of Photography, Matthew Irving has lensed an eclectic slate of two dozen feature films including Fox Searchlight's hit romantic comedy WAITRESS (starring Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion, Jeremy Sisto, Cheryl Hines and Andy Griffith), which premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and reached #4 on the box office charts. The Lionsgate teen comedy WAITING... (starring Ryan Reynolds, Justin Long, and Ana Faris) similarly cracked the box office top ten, to debut at #7. Other feature credits include the Sony Pictures Classics rave film GROOVE (which was nominated for "Best Picture" at the 2001 Independent Spirit Awards); the horror film THE ECHO (for Vertigo Entertainment, producers of THE RING and THE GRUDGE); and the romantic coming-of-age drama WAITING FOR FOREVER (directed by James Keach and starring Tom Sturridge, Rachel Bilson, Richard Jenkins and Blythe Danner). Irving recently teamed with director Mario Van Peebles for the Southern blues-based road movie BLACK WHITE AND BLUES (starring Michael Clarke Duncan, Morgan Simpson, and Tom Skerritt), and delved back into the horror genre for the upcoming QUARANTINE 2: TERMINAL.
Throughout the years, Irving has earned accolades for his "precise framing and camera movement", and his "acute attention to color, lighting, and texture". His adaptive shooting style has been attracting attention since his first feature--appropriately entitled ONE--debuted at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival to unanimous critical acclaim. That same year, Filmmaker Magazine named him one of the "25 New Faces of Independent Film". He is represented by Innovative Artists.
