WINNIPEG – Take a good look at the next telephone pole you pass. Does it look like a giant letter T? Or does that forked tree resemble a Y?
Photographer David Matthews sees upper and lowercase letters of the alphabet everywhere he goes.
“I keep my eyes open and have my camera with me at all times.”
David runs his business, A to Z Illusions, from his home in Alexander, Man., a village west of Brandon. He calls his work letter art photography or lettergraph. A photo of a door in the shape of an H is one of the approximately 400 photos he has in stock that contain the shape of a letter.
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Matthews uses these images to spell words. An automatic function on his website at www.atozillusions.com allows visitors to select letters to spell words of their choice. They can check on variations of each letter in their word to personalize the overall look.
“I’m giving them the paint box and they are painting the picture.”
He said L-O-V-E is the most popular word, followed by L-A-U-G-H and F-A-M-I-L-Y. Customers often order words as gifts for a new baby, wedding, birthday or retirement.
Matthews processes his photos in a four by six inch format in sepia tone because he said colour distracts from the letter shapes and he finds black and white too harsh.
The letters are available individually, or Matthews will mat and frame a word that a customer selects.
Growing up in England, Matthews began photography as a hobby and later learned the skill of developing photos commercially.
He worked as a photojournalist, took commercial photos and ran a camera shop before marrying a Canadian and moving to Thompson, Man., in 1999. He and his wife have been living in Alexander for about six years.
Matthews said he began to see years ago how natural and manmade shapes can form letters. However, it was the literacy work he does as a volunteer in the local elementary school that inspired him to start taking photos of these images and forming words.
Older buildings often contain interesting shapes, and Matthews is now working on a collection of letters with an agricultural theme.
All but three of the letter photos he offers were taken within Manitoba. One of them is Toronto’s CN Tower, which looks like a capital I. The hardest letter to find is a capital R.
While Matthews conducts most of his business through his website, he also sells his work at craft sales in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
This past summer, he set up a booth at the Forks Market in Winnipeg, where international visitors were interested in his photos.
On his website, visitors can sign up for a newsletter that includes information on Matthews upcoming shows and tips on photography.
