When Stephanie Matthews decided she wanted to be versed in fine art photography, she picked out a bunch of books and read all about it.

Barely a full year later, Matthews’ work is front and center on the national scene. The Columbus resident (and Houston native) doesn’t mess around with intricate lighting techniques or detailed background sets. She relies simply on her camera and the subject – typically a dancing female.

Matthews is strongly right-brained, with a sharp eye for aesthetics, feeling and creativity. She has dabbled in painting and toured the Midwest with her poetry. It wasn’t until her father became terminally ill that she committed fully to photography.

“I wanted to photograph him in a way that I could really see him – the real him – and really know him while I still had him here. I would document him going to the doctor, doing things on a daily basis – it was a way to deal with my grief,” she says.

Matthews lost her father to cancer in January 2005. By June of that same year, she was studying photography in Maine with internationally-renowned photographer Joyce Tenneson. She then began taking photography classes in New York City, where she whittled down her subject matter to focus on women and dance.

“I have always loved dance and in New York City, there are dancers literally everywhere – on the street, the subway. I did some research and found that there were only a handful of dance photographers in the country and decided that was it. There was an ‘a-ha’ moment,” Matthews says. “And with women, you truly get that emotion, that rawness. They always seem to open up more and show their vulnerabilities.”

After deciding on women and dance, the only thing she had left to do was get a connection to both. She called the famed Isadora Duncan Foundation, and resident dancer Lori Belilove answered the phone. Fate took over.

The two collaborated their talents and created The EveryWoman Series, which will visit Columbus on April 6 at the Southern Theatre. The multimedia show features Matthew’s photography as the focal point of Belilove’s choreography.

The series will also hit New York City, San Francisco and Los Angeles, and more dates are in the works. The two women plan on keeping the series going indefinitely, summing up the whirlwind of a year for the somewhat accidental photographer.

“I’ve had a lot of those moments this year where I can’t believe this is all happening. When I’m shooting, it’s like time slows down and I have to remind myself that I was there, that I took that picture! It is something that comes very natural to me and is very fun,” Matthews says.

Belilove has described Matthews’ work with far less modesty. “Stephanie’s photos are like a road map to the many states of a woman. She is making manifest the interior world of women as they dance their secret dance as if all alone,” she says. “The photos capture the women as they manipulate the veiling and unveiling dance of their lives.”

For more information on Matthews’ photography or the EveryWoman Series, visit www.stephaniematthewsphotography.com.

The EveryWoman Series...

On April 6, Columbus will become a part of modern dance history as world-renowned choreographer/dancer Lori Belilove, head of the resident troupe of the Isadora Duncan Foundation in NYC, and Columbus’ fine arts photographer Stephanie Matthews unveil an emotionally-charged suite of dances called The EveryWoman Series: The Red Thread.

The inspiration behind the event is simple. “I just want to create a safe place for women to be who they are. Not to be judged, but to be free, even if it’s just briefly. Watching Lori and others dance truly makes me happy and that’s what it’s about,” Matthews says.

The dances – 24 of them in total, accompanied by 24 photographs and 24 preludes – explore the feelings of women at different phases of their lives. Set to the music of Chopin’s 24 Preludes, each suite depicts a succinct moment, inspired by the fine art photographs of Matthews. The multimedia collaboration will be performed at the Southern Theatre by Columbus-based dancers from CM2, The Thiossane West African Dance Troupe, members of the Ohio State University dance department and various contemporary and cultural dance programs throughout Ohio. The preludes will be performed live by The John Link Project.

For more information, visit www.stephaniematthewsphotography.com or www.isadoraduncan.org.

***The Red Thread is the bloodline that binds us all as humans. It is a doorway that opens into a world where individuals of various cultures, ethnicities and economic status can come together and forge positive communication, self-assurance and hope for change.