PP's Photographer in the Spotlight: Matt Heidelberger

Most people shun urban blight. They're accustomed to how things are supposed to look, so they see no art -- or potential for art -- in such things as abandoned homes, broken windows, rotting trees, unkept foliage and piles of debris.

Matt Heidelberger is an exception, and for almost a year now he has been developing an ongoing

project to photograph Indianapolis, mostly in the one-mile-square area of Downtown, and posting his images on his blog called The Heidelberger Papers. Heidelberger, 28, calls Indianapolis his hometown, a place he has lived most of his life. "I first attended school at Ivy Tech, then on to IUPUI, and would eventually like to receive more certifications in systems engineering and programming," he said.

Heidelberger has no qualms about what time of day he hits the streets to do his photography. He'll go after a shot day or night, and a good number of his shots, indeed, have been taken after dark. He also is among 648 people who submitted images to the CaptureIndy project, a book-publishing endeavor driven by The Indianapolis Star to collect images from area photographers that best represent the community.

When he's not out looking for a new photo subject, Heidelberger works as a systems programmer at the City-County Building. Besides photography, Heidelberger also enjoys film, music, reading and biking -- and researching "whatever interests me at the time." He has two cats.

Matt, when and how did you get into photography and what was it about the craft that pulled you into it earnest? Did you do a lot of shooting in film and/or do your own darkroom work?

I’m still very new to the world of photography. I’ve always enjoyed taking pictures

of locations and items as a method to document my experiences, but it's only been a little over a year since I believe that my pictures evolved into photographs. The constant discovery of both new locations that I shoot and the continued development of my abilities as a photographer, is what pulled me in and keeps me involved with the craft.

I have spent very little time in a darkroom, but I do enjoy the process. I kind of missed the boat on film photography so I find myself entrenched in digital.

Are there any prominent photographers you count as favorites or inspirations?

I really don’t have any formal education in photography or engaged in formal study, so my knowledge of historical photographers is limited. I do possess much more knowledge in classic cinema, which has served as a strong inspiration. Much of my black-and-white night shots are influenced by the lighting and focusing techniques used by films of the Noir period from the early '40s. to the mid-'50s. I am also a fan of 1970s cinema, so my grainy/gritty, low-saturation urbanscene shots are in part inspired by films like The French Connection, which in my opinion is beautifully shot.

You have an ongoing project to document photographically the one-square-mile area surrounding the heart of Downtown Indianapolis, and you publish your work on a Web site/photo blog called The Heidelberger Papers. Talk to me a little about the project. Is the way you approach it now the same as it was when you started, or did it evolve over time? Do you have a system on what or where to shoot? Or is it largely random? Do you have an organizational system to track everything you've shot and/or what else is out there to shoot?

I have lived in and around Indianapolis for all of my life and even since I was a child have been fascinated by it. At the age of 10, I was already studying various maps of the city, my favorite being an old map from 1962, and learning thevarious changes that have occurred to present. I’ve always been interested in exploring, but The Heidelberger Papers was naturally born as my interest in photography developed (no pun intended here). Indianapolis has a very active blogging community with a strong interest in many aspects of Indianapolis of which I follow closely. This was where the idea of using a blog as a medium came to be.

The Heidelberger Papers has evolved drastically since its creation in October 2008. It started more as a blog of observing Indianapolis (surrounding architecture, people/culture, etc.), then evolved into a much more active project of exploring as much of the inner workings of Indianapolis as I can find. I usually mix how I plan my shoots. Some of the material I shoot are places that I know very well and just wish to share with other people. Others are random, unfamiliar places I survey, scout, and then explore. A large amount of my work on The Heidelberger Papers is from either the south or east sides of Indianapolis. The reason for this is quite practical: I have lived for years on both those sides of town and know them very well.

I carry enough details in my mind to remember areas I have been. It's quite funny actually; I frequently forget the most rudimentary details of my life (e.g., phone numbers, passwords or the last whereabouts of my keys) but could visually draw you a map of Marion County and much of its surrounding counties and share anecdotes about my visits to the places on that map.

The Heidelberger Papers moniker is a clever adoption of the famous immunologist's research papers. Are you any relation to Michael Heidelberger, by chance?

While I’m related to a Michael Heidelberger, I’m not related to the immunologist Michael Heidelberger. The blog title was influenced in part by the work of Michael Heidelberger even if I couldn’t tell you much about antigens, antibodies or the immune system. LOL

A lot of your shots in The Heidelberger Papers project are taken at night. What is like to shoot so much at night? I've seen references in your blog to how occasionally you'll get stopped by police, probably because to them you're acting suspicious. Is that a pretty innocent check on their

part to make sure you're not engaged in anything criminal? Do they "get" the pursuit of your craft as you explained it to them? Or have there been some uncomfortable confrontations?

I would have to say that night photography is my favorite type of photography, even though it can be a pain. It requires more planning, and usually more equipment, but you have more control over the mood of your shot, in my opinion. The risks for confrontations involved are obvious: Hauling more than a grand and a half worth of photography equipment into dark conditions makes you a little more aware of your surroundings. That being said, I’m still pretty comfortable doing it. I have had some incidents where I’ve run into trouble or have seen things that have disturbed me. I have encountered people who just seem to object to cameras in general and get hostile and stumbled upon people doing various illegal substances while walking on railroad tracks. I have been stopped and questioned by the curious members of local law enforcement, but nothing further than curiosity.

Once, I thought I was possibly in trouble when I was stopped by a CSX transit officer for walking on the railroad tracks on the east side of Indy, an incident I escaped from with only a verbal warning. On another recent occasion, a woman sitting on a porch in a neighborhood near Fountain Square starting giving me a hard time about taking pictures of the area. These incidents usually follow a common formula. They ask why I’m taking pictures, I answer them, but they aren’t usually interested in an explanation. Sometimes they threaten to call the police as if law enforcement serves as their own personal security service. At this point, you can only remind them that you’re not breaking the law.

Based on your experiences with your night shots, what advice would you give to other photographers who would be interested in doing more of that kind of photography? Do you often do much prep work -- do you call ahead anytime to make sure there's no hassle, for example? Have you drafted a mental "plan" to deal with seedy sort you might encounter along the way? Do you have a workable plan to explain your hobby to police when they stop you to inquire?

The first bit of advice I would give to someone wishing to explore night photography is to bring the correct equipment or you trip out will be a bust. I suppose like most other photographic settings, be prepared to take several shots and be happy only with a few. Most of the areas I visit don’t really have a representative I can call up and give a heads up about my presence. It should be noted, however, that most of the issues I’ve had with people objecting to me being around, law enforcement or otherwise, have occurred during the day. I have the benefit of being large in stature (6'4" and just under 300 lbs.), which may deter some people from seeing me as a potential "mark." If I am approached, I usually will carry myself in a friendly, yet confident, non-intimidating manner. If that fails, my monopod has a consistency similar to a large maglite and can serve as an effectivemeans of defense. If I am approached by the police at night, I will explain to them what I am doing, but regardless, they are going to ask you to move along.

What about the general public? Surely they've seen you out there shooting things apparently at random? Do they stop to question you, and or/give you any hassle? How do you deal with that? Do you have a sense of what kind (volumewise) of following you have? You do tend to get a nice number of comments on a lot of your images.

Urban photography inevitably puts you in personal contact with people, sometimes more than what’s comfortable. My encounters with people vary; some can feel nothing but suspicion, others are just baffled about the "why" (“why would you want to photograph that ugly old thing?”), others are intrigued and inform me of other photographic opportunities in the area.

I don’t exactly know the size of my following; the indicators I have are mainly in the form of blog hits (a weekly average of about 70 views/day as of 8/3/09) and Flickr views and comments. I’ve been active in the online world for only a little less than a year, and my following is steadily growing.

I really appreciate the comments I receive on my images. I have a tendency to be extremely critical of my own work while being impressed with the work of others. When I receive a nice comment about my work, it lets me know my development is headed in the right direction.

What kind of equipment do you use? Anything special for the night shots you compose? Do you have many "favorites" among all the images you've captured along the way in your project?

My equipment base is rather modest. I have two cameras: a Canon Rebel XSi and a Panasonic DMC-TZ25. The majority of my photos are taken with the Canon, but there are times when a camera like that is impractical, then I bring along my Panasonic point- and-shoot. I have three Canon lenses: the EF-S 18-55mm, EF-S 55-250mm, EF 50mm f/1.8 prime.

My night shots are usually taken while braced on a tripod, monopod, but most likely, up against the nearest utility pole or street sign. I don’t typically use my 250mm telephoto for night shots, as lighting issues make things tricky. My 50mm f/1.8 lens, although the cheapest I own, works really well for shooting low-light shots.

My favorite image to date probably is a night shot (right) I took in a dark alleyway in the St. Joseph Neighborhood, just north of downtown. It had just stopped raining about an hour before. The light at the "end" of the shot is the Central Library.

How much time is required to keep your project going? Is that a priority among your photography endeavors? I guess what I'm wondering is ... do you enjoy any other types of photography, and do you have much time to spend on those after tending to your expectations/goals of The Heidelberger Papers project?

Currently, The Heidelberger Papers does dominate my time dedicated to photography and much of my personal life. Most of the other photos I take outside Indianapolis are acquired out of a coincidental opportunity. I do enjoy photographing people and events, but I find that to be much more of a challenge for me (you don’t have to interact and instruct a bridge or building).

How important is feedback in your photography -- whether it's The Heidelberger Papers or other work you do outside of that?

I do enjoy it when I hear that other people enjoy my work. I also enjoy receiving helpful feedback from more experienced photographers than myself. The comments on The Heidelberger Papers have been extremely helpful in other ways as well. For instance, I would do a post featuring a landmark, and a comment would be made comparing it to another location. This, in turn, would lead me to explore that area for a future post. Aside from The Heidelberger Papers, I am quite active on Flickr, which to my surprise, fans of my work there are not really acquainted with my blog, and vice versa.

You're a contributor to the CaptureIndy project -- the development of an illustrative book of Indianapolis presented by The Indianapolis Star. How do you decide what to nominate for inclusion in that? Are you enjoying any side benefits of the exposure your work is getting as a result of so many people seeing your work (other than this interview, I mean)?

I chose to submit some of my personal favorites of locations that I felt not many other participants would post. I have noticed higher blog traffic since I began participating in CaptureIndy (especially in the first few weeks) and have discovered other participants’ work on Flickr.

Have you ever had any of your work on display in a public gallery? Have you ever sold any of your work? How was/were that experiences(s) and what was it like for you? Would you like to experience more of that ... and/or do you consider that a goal -- short-term or long-term -- at some point?

I’ve never had my work displayed publicly, except my blog, of course. I have sold only a few prints of my work, but they were definitely gratifying. I can’t quit my day job, but it’s a rewarding feeling to know someone is interested enough in your work to purchase it.

Check out:

Matt's Web site, The Heidelberger Papers

Matt's photo stream at Flickr

Matt's page at CaptureIndy

PP's Photographer in the Spotlight Phil Jern

This month's Photographer in the Spotlight introduces Phil Jern of Indianapolis, a longtime shooter who began his craft when he was recruited to work on the yearbook at Thomas Carr Howe High School on the Eastside of Indianapolis some 40 years ago or so. One of the photos Jern took in those years, an exterior shot of the high school, is among pictures he keeps in a set of family images at his Flickr stream site.

The native of Urbana, Ill., left for the U.S. Army in 1972, serving in Thailand, Hawaii, Berlin and Ethiopia. When he was on duty, Jern said, he could not travel with a camera due to the nature of his duties, something he said he's always regretted. "Most of the locations and projects I worked in/at were classifed areas." But when he was off duty, he more than made up for it and amassed a large collection of images. That collection met an unfortunate fate, something Jern will discuss in our interview.
When he's not practicing his craft, Jern does programming for private business clients and runs a small expedited freight contracting service.

I met Phil, the first of several Indianapolis photographers I intend to introduce here in the coming months, through CaptureIndy, a photographic book publishing project driven by The Indianapolis Star that is still in the process of collecting prospective images from area photographers to use in the book.

Phil, your bio page at your Web site indicates you got into photography when you were in high school, working for the school newspaper and yearbook. How did you end up doing photographic work for the newspaper and yearbook staff? Were you recruited? Was there a learning curve involved? If so, how did that go and work? Did your high school offer any journalism, writing and/or photography courses?

I went to high school at Thomas Carr Howe High School, Class of 1972. Like most things, the story starts with people -- a couple of good, interested teachers who were willing to spend time with students above and beyond the call of duty. We had journalism classes, and people for the yearbook/paper were recruited from there. As I recall, they fell under the English department. I don't recall any special photography courses, although I did get sort of taken under the wing of the pro who shot the school portraits -- he taught me film developing, for example. A lot of my learning was self-directed; I've always had an autodidactic streak. I spent a lot of time in the library reading Ansel Adams, etc.

Speaking of Adams, I'll ask you another question I ask all the shooters in my Q&A features: Do you have any favorite photographers -- either whose work you've followed locally or from afar through the years ... or who may have inspired you to a significant degree?

Well, photographers and artists ... Adams, Jerry Uelsmann, any number of the National Geographic pros over the years. Weegee and his New York crime scene photos. There's an immediacy there that's compelling. O. Winston Link and his photos from the last days of steam on the Norfolk and Western Railroad is a particular favorite.

How was it that you ended up living in so many places in the world ... and that you ended up back in Indianapolis? Do you have a lot of images from your world travels?

Well, most of that travel was courtesy of Uncle Sam. I lived in Thailand, Germany and Hawaii and visited many other countries in the course of my duties. I don't have as many images as one would think, partially because a container with my belongings was lost overboard during a move, and I lost about 20,000 negatives and slides. That was so personally devastating to me that I quit altogether for a number of years. I eventually came back here to be closer to my children.

You are my first Indianapolis profile for this feature, so considering you've done a lot of traveling, I thought you'd be a good person to ask the following: How would you size up Indianapolis and its community as photographic subjects -- its people, places, landscapes, charm -- or any other attribute you can think of? Are there any shoots of yours locally in particular you are most pleased with? Have you had any hellacious experiences on a local shoot?
Indianapolis has lots to offer the photographer -- everything from the quiet gardens of the art museum to the downtown canal (one of my favorite places!) to beautiful parks and the public gardens at Garfield Park. There are great people here, too. If you can't find something interesting to shoot here, you're not even trying! I've never had a problem shooting here, although I've run across some ... unusual people.

How difficult, or easy, was it for you to make the transition into digital photography? Do you still dabble in film? If so, do you also do your own lab work? I've chatted recently with people who did lots of film work and are lamenting the disappearance (and staying/preservation power) of Kodachrome. Are you one of those?

Digital photography was hard for me, at first. I dabbled with the early cameras before 2001 or so and decided that it wasn't ready for prime time, so I stuck with my 25-year-old Minolta. I made a couple forays into point and shoots, but it wasn't until the Nikon D70/Canon Rebel era that I got interested in digital again.

I still have one film camera -- a Nikon N80. I haven't used it in a while. I have no room or desire to have a wet lab again. With reference to Kodachrome: I never used it much, having at one time a preference for the Agfa and Fuji colors. I did tons of Ektachrome over the years.

Digital files have the possibility of being preserved for a very long time if we work at it. I remember early Sony cams that got one photo on a floppy disk, and now we get tens of thousands on cheap hard disks -- so cheap that I keep all my stuff backed up on three separate drives.

You use your Web site not only to display the cream of your work but, it seems, to instruct and encourage. I remember seeing, for example, a reference to how one of the best pieces of advice you could give a photographer is to shoot close and shoot wide (see accompanying images of the longboat and "roadkill view" front auto grill). Do you really think in those terms when you approach every shot before deciding if it is the best approach for that shot?

Most of the time, I try to. I do apply generalities, however. Indoors, for example, I'm likely to shoot wide-angle just because of the limited room, and I'm going to be close anyway. For flowers, I know I'm going to probably use something in the 150-300mm range, to isolate and decrease depth of field. For architecture and outside scenes, I try to let the subject dictate what I use.

"Get Close and Go Wide" works for me. It's one of my personal philosophies because I feel it opens up a lot of relational space in the frame. It might not work for everyone, but I feel like a lot of photos don't live up to their potential with a more timid approach.

Many photographers have a vision of the final product before, or as, they set up the picture. You allude to that a couple times, for example, in the captions of some of the rural or abandoned building shots that I saw at your Web site. Would you say you're able to do that most of the time? If not, what percentage of the time do you not decide how to process, or finish, an image in post-processing until you have it up on your editing software?

Well, it's easy enough to say that black-and-white post-processing is going to be where something is going to end up if it's a monochromatic subject with interesting textures and contrast. Sometimes, I'll switch horses midstream, playing on Photoshop with different crops or contrast curves, to see what works best. I have a bunch of non-standard tool settings that I've developed that fit my style. I'd say it's probably 75 percent pre-planned and 25 percent serendipity.

Regarding the challenge to shoot wide and close ... what kind of wide-angle lens options do have to pick from? Do you have a favorite? And speaking of equipment, what types of camera bodies do you have and/or use regularly? And is any one of those also your all-time favorite? If not, what is?

I don't actually own a wide variety of lenses. The 18mm setting on my 18-70 kit lens is often wide enough, and if not, I go to my Sigma 10-20. The 10-20mm is my go-to lens for automobile photography. I use Nikon bodies; for me it's strictly a matter of ergonomics -- they feel better in my hand. I try not to overspend on equipment: I still have and use a D50. My main camera is a D80. I never take sides in the brand warfare; I think everyone should choose their cameras for their own reasons.

I recently read through a lengthy photo group discussion thread at an online business networking site ("Linked-In, if you're familiar with it). A group member asked fellow photographers if and when a photograph can be labeled "fine art." Some shooters said that the degree of photo editing involved in post-processing determined the definition for them. How do you feel about pictures -- images -- being classified as "fine art?" Do you think all images can be termed fine art, and if you think not, at what point does an image become fine art?

Art is a subjective term, and "fine art" is an over-qualification. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and art is something intangible. It's inherent in what you see in something. I believe everyone has the innate capability to be an artist in some manner, and I'd be the last person to draw a line as to where art starts or ends.

Along the same line, when you do your post-processing, do you have a personal "rule" or line that you don't cross when it comes to enhancing images? Also what Photoshop features do you find yourself either utilizing -- or appreciating -- the most? Are there any other photo editing software programs you use regularly and/or regard as important or crucial in your workflow? Lightroom, for example? Or any of the noise-removal programs (or plug-ins)?

I try not to get too heavy-handed, and try to avoid the standard "art" filters that come with programs like Photoshop. I'm more "nuts and bolts" in my approach and will work with the underlying layers. Sometimes I fail; that's part of the process, too. I try to shoot to avoid noise in the first place -- if there's not enough light, I'll try to find more somehow. I went to a workshop in Berlin once with a German photographer, who told me he used only available light. Later in the day, he pulled out a Vivitar flash. Noting the look on my face, he told me, "Is light. Is available."

The layer masks and blend modes in Photoshop are nothing short of miraculous to an old-timer like me. I still discover new things I can do every day. LAB mode is a huge help, for a million reasons.

You shoot a variety of styles -- portraits, landscapes, sunsets/sunrises, buildings, animals, rural scenes, landmarks, cars and trucks, bridges, trains, light optics (the amusement ride, slow shutter shots) and night shots. Do you have a favorite, or two or three favorites "types" of shots? Do you have an area you feel you're strongest in? Which give(s) you the most satisfaction?
I like playing with light and motion, that's my fun time shooting right there. I'm pretty much a night owl, so I gravitate to night shots sort of naturally.

You are a member of the Indianapolis photography organization Flickr Meetup. Can you describe what role the the group and its various outings and meetings have played, or the value of the ability to share kinship and knowledge with other photographers, in the development of your skills, the appreciation of your craft and/or the awareness of your techniques?

I'm not as active in the Flickr Meetup group as I would like to be. Work and my plain old forgetfulness gets in the way. It doesn't help that Flickr has made the groups one click deeper to get to (Flickr made the group's online access site less prominent, requiring another click or two to see if there was any activity. It's less convenient to monitor them, now).

I've missed a lot of stuff because I sometimes don't think to go look on my own. Again, that's my fault; there are an awful lot of good people there who are very caring and sharing.

Have you ever had any of your work displayed in an exhibit? If not, would you like to? Does the Flickr group do anything to help spotlight members' work in any way?
I had an exhibit at the Berlin American Art Fair in 1978 or 1979. I usually don't go out for those things too much, especially when we have online resources like Flickr, Picasa and individual Web sites nowadays. I have seen some recent messages on the Indy Flickr group indicating some interest in displaying prints.

To see more of Phil's work, visit the following site:

Flickr sets/photostream

Added July 18, 2026: Phil passed away at age 65 on March 6, 2019. The link in this sentence takes you to a wonderful obituary chronicling his life.