Matthew Thorsen Credit: Melanie Maria Goodreaux
We’re deeply saddened to report the death, from cancer, of  Seven Days‘ longtime beloved staff photographer Matthew Thorsen. Though expected, his passing — on New Year’s Day 2019 — is nonetheless devastating to us all.

Matt had been taking pictures for Seven Days from the paper’s beginning in 1995. His quirky personality fit in with our scrappy startup, and his idiosyncratic vision defined the look of the paper for many years. We all particularly loved — still love — his black-and-white portraiture with distinctive black borders.

Over time the paper grew, technology altered the media landscape and photography switched to digital. Matt took the changes in stride, mastering new camera equipment along with the challenges and opportunities of full color.

Matt captured an enormous and perhaps representative cross-section of Vermonters, from politicians to skateboarders, from dairy farmers to punk rockers. He shot friends and family, too, constantly. Basically, the camera was an extension of his body; it seemed to be Matt’s way of communicating, and communing, with the world.

Look for a more extensive remembrance of Matt in the January 9 issue of Seven Days. Meantime, you can watch, or re-watch, Eva Sollberger’s remarkable Stuck in Vermont video, made last October, of a conversation with Matt about living and dying. Sollberger produced another video about Thorsen’s “Sound Proof” band photo exhibit in 2011.

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You can also view the images in “Thorever,” a selected retrospective last summer of Matt’s photos at the BCA Center, here.

Please feel free to leave comments on this post about Matt, or email them to pamela@sevendaysvt.com.

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Pamela Polston is a contributing arts and culture writer and editor. She cofounded Seven Days in 1995 with Paula Routly and served as arts editor, associate publisher and writer. Her distinctive arts journalism earned numerous awards from the Vermont...

13 replies on “Seven Days Photographer Matthew Thorsen Dies at 51”

  1. Thank you Matt for making my first cover design of Seven Daysand my careercome to life. Couldnt have done it without you

  2. I loved Matt. I was too shy to tell him, but he gave me confidence to be myself.
    Eternal thanks.

  3. Matt’s passing is a great loss for our community and for the many people whose lives he touched with humor, kindness, and warmth. He shot like he lived: with inimitable style and a keen sense of what makes us all so wonderfully weird.

  4. One of the joys since moving to Vermont was seeing Matt’s photos in Seven Days each week. I greatly admired and appreciated his work. He will be missed. I hope there will be a book of his photos offered by the paper or his family.

  5. I was so honored to be photographed by Matt in my small art studio when Sadie did a story on my Valentine-making workshops a few years back. There will never be anyone else like Matt—he was fun, quirky, creative, and saw the world in such a cool way. Love to everyone in his circle.

  6. What I remember most about being photographed by Matt is his uncanny ability to make you feel like you were on his side of the lens, not the subject. It made me feel more invested in what he was trying to accomplish with the shoot and I forgot about how i looked, or the purpose of the photo. I was left with the sense that in the short span of 10 or 15 minutes, we had just journeyed on some epic adventure of experiencing life from more angles than I’d imagined possible.

  7. Matt took a uniformed chief of police and put him in front of an exuberant, multi-colored abtract mural and made it all look like it was meant to be. His final product is probably the pic I’ll remember most and the one I send when people ask for a portrait. I really enjoyed interacting with him. I’ll miss his positive energy and his immense talent.

  8. I never knew Matt personally, but have long admired his photography from afar. As a kid, when I’d repurpose old issues of Seven Days into fire starters, I’d often save Matt’s photos from the flames. His work was striking, irreverent, silly, punk rock.

    Watching Eva’s video on Matt really made me wish I knew the guy better. He seemed like one of a kind. Sending love to Seven Days and Matt’s family.

  9. I am deeply saddened by the far-too-soon loss of Matt Thorsen. Not only was a uniquely talented and original photographer my photo shoots with Matt always involved unexpected props and acrobatic poses — he was kind and generous in surprising ways. I will miss working with him and running into him around town.

  10. A tragic loss; a good man. I knew him personally for the last year+ of his life and wish I had known him for many more. RIP Thorever

  11. Matt came out to Colchester to take pictures of me and my kids and while he got us into many creative angles and poses, he discussed ideas of Buddhism, musicology, Tibet, children, hitch hiking, cities vs. the country and art. I wanted to score some points on something about photography, but he blew my mind with all these ideas while snapping away….that I forgot all about that stuff. He wowed us all by his humor, creativity and warmth — what a happening human being! RIP. The picture he went for was of us in a tree where I had swung the kids in from infancy — Matt had a connection with the cosmos.

    Erik Kaarla

  12. I’m a new reader but his work is wonderful, the video of him shows how fun and hilarious he was. What a loss for the community.

  13. My heart is broken for you all !! I remember when Matt was little he was soo funny <3 Love and support to all the family <3

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