MATUSCHKA

About Her 

Matuschka never thought about modeling when she was growing up in rural New Jersey in the sixties. She played a musical instrument in the school band, constantly doodled on paper, redecorated her room, and was certain when she grew up she’d be a musician or a cartoonist.

In junior high, she enrolled in all the courses the art department offered and took life sketching classes at the local college. 

One day the art instructor notified the class that the figurative model wouldn’t be coming in and students would have to draw from a still-life of decaying fruit that the janitor had failed to toss out.  This was an enormous disappointment for all, so Matuschka, who was comfortable taking her clothes off, volunteered to take the models’ place. “Money for nothing, instruction and experience for free,” she would later say when discussing her first paid modeling gig. “I got $20 bucks. It was so much easier than waitressing.”

A few months later, in the summer of ’71,  a chance encounter in the country would not only increase her ‘modeling rate’ but also alter both her development as an art student and model when she was discovered skinny dipping in Mahwah, New Jersey by an enthusiastic photographer.  “He appeared out of the nowhere and I was first frightened, so I stayed in the water. Then he asked me if he could take my picture. I told him: “Under one condition. You must send me the prints.”

He agreed and soon images of an unruly nymphet,  emerging from a lake---- dripping wet with clay and rotting leaves stuck to her ass---- arrived in the mail. "Money for nothing, photographs for free," Matuschka thought to herself.

The photographer also showed his friends pictures of ‘that skinny teen with the long dark hair, bouncy breasts and frenzied little behind’ and soon Matuschka was busy posing for a variety of regional photographers in Northern Jersey. One in particular, became  her mentor and not only showed her how to pose ‘correctly’--- he also taught her how to print the images they made in the darkroom.

“As I saw myself emerge on the photographic paper I began to view my body differently: as an object, as something to make art with. I was falling in love with the art of photography and a means to express myself in another form: perhaps someday, I too would become a photographer. Then one day when we were drying some prints, Ralph gave me a gift that would change the course of my career forever.”

That present turned out to be the January 1971 issue of Playboy Magazine.

At twice her age, Veruschka, a German model, was a blend between the beautiful and the bizarre--- perhaps the most extraordinary and exquisite creature one could see spread out in a national magazine. Painted like a snow leopard, or a blue lizard, or even a rock in a snake pile, Veruschka used her body as an art form and the camera was her friend. “I was blown away by her slinky strides and animal hides imprinted on her skin. Untamed in the wild, Veruschka was the perfect mix between reality and imagination: she burned an impression on my mind that couldn’t be extinguished. Unknowingly, she became my role model and made me realize that being in front of a camera could be an enormously creative experience: modeling was not a job--- but rather a means to convey something personal--- to make a statement, or to even to be a symbol for an alternative agenda.”

That summer, Matuschka was keen on learning how to use a camera and master how to be behind one, before she could be in front of one. For the next four years she took photography classes and apprenticed with professional photographers in a variety of schools and states.

In 1974 she arrived in N.Y.C. Now 20 years old, she attended The School of Visual Arts in the day at drove a cab at night. A ‘chance’ fare took one look at her high cheek bones and porcelain skin and suggested she consider becoming a fashion model. His connections led her to the Wilhelmina Modeling agency. “You’ll be a star or nothing,” the great agent proclaimed, informing Matuschka's look might work better in Europe.” Shortly thereafter, Matuschka rolled up her canvasses, put away her paint brushes, turned her cab into the garage, and jumped on a plane to pursue a modeling career in Europe. Although her art career was put on hold while  she slunk down the catwalks in Paris; was a print model in Europe and New York, and an artist’s model (for a variety of illustrators, fine art photographers, videographers and designers) she spent more time in European Museums meeting artists like Salvador Dali, and participating in Anton Perich’s video orgies than she did going on ‘go sees’ or actually modeling.

In the late 70s Matuschka would be introduced to one of most important fashion icons of the 20th century: the unreasonable, but extremely influential innovators of all time: Charles James.

“We were shooting at the Chelsea Hotel and it was hot. Of course, no air-conditioning and James’ dog--- Sputnik--- took a liking to licking my left toe which peeked out of a pair of Charles Jourdan spikes, (heels that resembled nails), that I was trying to balance on. Despite the discomfort of the shoot, and the tedious tilting of my head by James for his preferred “head shot”  of me, I was working with a genius: so the pain was worth the gain. I didn’t care that it was 110 degrees, that everyone smelled ripe, that the dog shat in the corner, or that peeping Toms were lurking in the dingy hallways, I was involved in a moment in history: a video recording, unusual for those times, wearing some of the most amazing dresses and capes ever made, by a remarkable man, just before he died.”

Perhaps it was just that: Matuschka’s resilience to go to any length to make a great photograph no matter how physically demanding it was and Charles knew that. In 1978 he proclaimed her, in what would be their final shoot together, to be “The Model of the Future.”

In the 80s Matuschka morphed out of modeling to pursue her main addiction: art. And her experience as a 70s model primed her for the photographs she would create in the next 40 years. Like Veruschka, she would continue to use her body in her compositions, becoming the narrator of her own stories and imagination. She posed with plaster mannequins made of her body in dilapidated dwellings and called the series “The Ruins”. Later she would photograph herself in a variety of genders and races with message oriented text  protesting disparity amount the sexes and various cultures. Unbeknownst to her, she was preparing herself for a more serious body of work she would create in the early 90s.

Matuschka was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1991, and like many, her life was altered as much as her body was. Quickly she began documenting every stage of the devolution of her figure after surgery. Plaster casts were built to compliment what she had begun in the 80s--- but this time the photographs served to provide the public with information about a disease which was killing so many women each year.  

Fame and Formation- Flash Forward

Over a quarter of a century ago, Matuschka encouraged the media to accept women the way they are: with one, two or no breasts. In her day it was uncommon for a woman to walk around with only one breast. Like others before her, she challenged stereotypes and did not conform. But unlike others, she took self-portraits, reminiscent of high fashion photographs, in vertical format, in color, “with enough room for the Magazines’ masthead to be displayed across the top of the image. I deliberately designed my breast cancer imagery to mimic magazine covers.” 

And then one day it all fell into place. The New York Times chose “Beauty out of Damage” a self-portrait, baring her mastectomy scar, for their Sunday Magazine cover. In total, 22 more book and magazine covers would follow.

           Matuschka always modeled for a reason. To this day she is approached by women of all ages who thank her for representing women who have had breast cancer, with dignity, grace and beauty. While fashion and fantasy always played a part in her pictures, other elements also came into play: a model and a photographer both together could tell a story. Matuschka has been since the 70s both the model and the creator of the pictures you see on this site.

"It wasn’t simply ‘the scar’ that shocked her viewers. The tumble of clothing and ‘sexy gown’ cut to reveal the scar shows that she literally stripped herself bare before her audience. And although to add insult to injury, she stares boldly towards us, radiantly self-confident and perhaps even a trifle amused by the responses she provokes.”- Dr. David Galloway from "The Body in the 20th Century".

In 1978 the famous couturier, Charles James, proclaimed Matuschka to be “The Model of the Future”. What did Mr. James mean by that? a role model for women of substance, style and stamina? Is that The Model of the Future? Women who have suffered, been damaged, have scars,  but survived? A woman who follows her passion, who still has dreams, who has sacrificed and struggled, yet no matter how old or injured she is she will still persist. Matuschka, like many women possesses a certain ageless beauty and believes, “that the only real courage is to face oneself, the whole package”.

Since her historic images were published over a quarter of a century ago, Matuschka opted to begin reconstruction in 2013. Now 33 years after her mastectomy operation Matuschka has arrived again, in another formation. As an older woman who is still ‘here’ and not much different than was when modeling Charles James’s famous bustier at the Chelsea hotel back in 1978.

Matuschka is back. And ready. The Model of the Future has arrived.