Mateo Chacon - Photographer
Hello! My name is Mateo (Mat) Chacon. I've been lucky enough to live a life that can be the screenshots of a full-scale riot. I'm a recovering CEO turned award-winning, internationally exhibited photographer and educator with photos published by The Smithsonian, Getty Images, Leica Fotografie International, and others since 2017. I pride myself on being an inclusive visual storyteller with a lifetime of experiences and adventures that I'm sure will send me to hell on a full scholarship. But for now... this is as close as it gets to Heaven.
Before becoming a photographer I was a successful software executive. I helped start the website development company US Web Corporation and participated in their $63 million IPO. After a successful career building software companies in Arizona and Washington state, I concluded my career as CEO of a profitable spatial computing company in Seattle that won the Greenlight Insights award for most innovative enterprise application, with customers that included Harvard, MIT, and the U.S. Department of Defense. A life-threatening injury in 2019 caused me to reevaluate my life path. I sold my Bellevue condo, significantly downsized, and dedicated my life to following my passion for photography.
Much of my work is focused on exposing power relations, shining a light on the darkness of social inequality around the world. I've been fortunate enough to have my photos shown in Leica Fotografie International online as Leica Master Shots, distributed and sold by Getty Images, featured internationally in photography and fine art publications such as ShotKit.com and The Photo Review Journal of Fine Art Photography, exhibited in galleries around the world, and featured in The Smithsonian Magazine.
I am also happy to be a 2023 recipient of a postgraduate bursary equipment grant by the Royal Photographic Society and MPB.com to continue my project documenting the reproductive rights of people on their journeys through in-vitro fertilization (IVF) therapies to achieve parenthood through science.
I'm a certified commercial drone pilot, a member of The National Press Photographer's Association, The International Association of Press Photographers, and am an Accredited Photographer with The Association of Photographers. I've completed studies in Photojournalism with the New York Institute of Photography, Commercial & Fine Art Photography with Speos International Photography School in Paris, France, and hold a Master of Arts degree in Photography from Falmouth University (ranked number 1 arts university in the UK.), graduating with honors.
I've leveraged my experience as a war photographer to capture images for international sporting events including marathons, cycling, and obstacle course races such as Spartan and Tough Mudder. Same kit, same skills, no bullets.
Though I didn't seek out to become a professional photographer and educator, I wouldn't change a thing. Photography feeds my soul and has taken me around the world, meeting and photographing the beautiful, strange, and interesting people that inhabit it, and then showing their stories.
If there’s one thing I've learned as a photographer documenting global social inequality of the human condition, it’s that this world needs only one thing… more love.
It is my goal to inspire that love.
Education
2024
Falmouth University, Cornwall, England.
Master of Arts Degree in Photography.
Graduated with honors.
2022
SPEOS Photography School, Paris, France.
Commercial + Fine Art Photography.
2020
New York Institute of Photography, New York, NY.
Photojournalism.
Pre-2018
Software executive and CEO with proven track record of fund raising and global awards.
Harvard Business School.
Rutgers Business School - Mini MBA in Social Media Marketing.
American Military University - Counterintelligence.
DoD Advisor - Human Dimensions Support Services Think Tank - Advising U.S. Department of Defense on active task orders and forward-looking capabilities of the elite warfighter and tactical athlete. (IDIQ: ID0418014)
Awards
2023
Postgraduate Bursary (Photojournalism) as Shortlisted Finalist, Royal Photographic Society.
2022
Top 10 Finalist Winner, Smithsonian Magazine 19th Annual Photo Contest (American Experience).
2021
Leica Master Shot, Leica Q Gallery, Leica Fotografie International.
2020
Leica Master Shot, Street Gallery, Leica Fotografie International.
Exhibitions
2024
IVF Anonymous, Permanent Commercial Solo Exhibition at RMA Health in Bellevue, WA.
2024
After Action, The SODO Gallery
2023
[r]EVOLUTION, The Rainier Club
2023
Conflict Photography, The Columbia Tower Club
2023
Life In Conflict, Lumen Field
2023
Gilded, Frequency Gallery
2023
Democracy In Distress, Innervisions
2023
Analogue, Seattle Records
2022
Downtown To Downrange, Seattle Rotary Club
2022
Downtown To Downrange, Cornish College of The Arts
2022
IM/MATERIAL Worlds, Landings 22 Cornwall, England
2022
Theater of War, The SODO Gallery
2021
The Seattle CHOP, The Photo Review Journal of Fine Art Photography
2020
Land-Scape, The SODO Gallery
2019
Seattle Street Photography, Photographic Center Northwest
Publications
Smithsonian Magazine
Getty Images
Leica Fotografie International (online)
The Photo Review Journal of Fine Art Photography
The Royal Photographic Society
Shotkit.com
Seattle Rainier Club
Seattle Columbia Tower Club
Seattle Rotary Club
Decorus Art
Innervisions Seattle
Seattle Records
Frequency Freemont
Spartan Race
Tough Mudder
Seattle Marathon
MarathonFoto
Sportograf
Professional Credentials
National Press Photographer's Association
Member ID: 193435334
The Association of Photographers
Accredited Photographer (Member ID: 14482)
Getty Images
Stock Photographer (Contributor ID: 691210)
International Association of Press Photographers
Photojournalist (Member ID: US/8-l-39623)