Andrew Matusik (July 31st, 1969) was a New York–based fashion and celebrity photographer^[1] for 20 years. Matusik moved his base of operation to Los Angeles, where he now directs and produces at his production company.^[2] His work combines traditional photographic techniques with digital post-production processes and has been discussed in publications such as After Capture. His work spans editorial, commercial, and fine art projects, and has appeared in numerous fashion magazines in New York, Los Angeles, and abroad. As the founder of Digital Retouch^[3], Matusik, along with his partner Price, was instrumental in transforming cover models^[4] into celebrities.

The beginnings of Andrew Matusik's creative journey began in the city of Los Angeles. There, he attended Occidental College, where he double majored in Fine Arts and Politics^[5]. During his early education, Andrew Matusik participated in art-focused coursework throughout his primary and secondary schooling. He later attended Occidental College in Los Angeles, where he earned a double major in Fine Arts and Politics. After completing his undergraduate studies, Matusik worked for a film production company, a role that involved international travel. During this period, he produced photographic work that documented the locations and environments he encountered through travel. After several years, he returned to Los Angeles and began pursuing photography as a full-time professional career.^[6]

Matusik’s practice developed at the intersection of photography, design, and digital technology. In addition to photographic training, he developed skills in digital post-production and computer graphics, enabling him to participate directly in image construction beyond the initial capture.

By the early 2000s, Matusik was a pioneer in the early days of digital photographic workflow and established a professional studio producing editorial and commercial photography. His approach reflected broader changes in professional photography as digital capture and post-production became increasingly viable for high-resolution publication.

Over time, his work appeared in magazine features, advertising projects, and gallery exhibitions focused on digitally manipulated photography. His practice aligns with a generation of photographers whose work blurred distinctions between traditional photography and digital image construction.

These early experiences contributed to his entry into the fashion and editorial photography industry working primarily with Zink Magazine from 2004-2010.^[7][8]

Matusik’s photographic work is characterized by the integration of traditional photographic techniques with digital post-production methods. Influenced by photographers such as Steven Meisel, Nick Knight, Jerry Schatzberg, David Sims, and Richard Avedon, he became an early practitioner of digital compositing photography. His approach involves the deliberate manipulation of space, color, and depth to construct stylized visual environments, a method he has described as an exploration of the relationship between negative and positive space. Matusik employed advanced digital compositing techniques and published these efforts to push the digital medium into the mainstream.  Matusik blended his past travel imagery with the present fashion genre while creating the future of digital image creation by utilizing his fine art sensibilities with cutting-edge photographic innovation manifested in what he self-describes as Fusion Photography; as referenced in the RANGEFINDER Magazine article Mr. Fusion written by Ethan G. Salwen in May, 2009.

Matusik produced and published digital surrealism utilizing over a hundred Photoshop layers for a fashion editorial for Atomica magazine (Vol. 3, 2005). He further developed this approach in the editorial project Sir Realist, published in GenLux (Winter issue, 2008), which expanded on the use of layered imagery and digitally constructed environments in fashion photography.  This editorial story later republished in connection with the opening of the Magritte Museum in Brussels, appearing in De Standaard magazine under the feature Mode met Magritte^[9]. Additionally, his fashion interpretation, inspired by Magritte's Le Pèlerin, was also published in Italian Vogue as part of a feature titled A Venetian Fairy Tale.

Throughout his career, Matusik’s work has appeared in numerous international publications. These include Italian Vogue^[10], Harper’s Bazaar Asia, Shape, Vibe Vixen, GenLux^{[11][12][13][14]}, Entertainment Weekly^[15], GQ Australia, Lucire^[16], Popular Photography, Aperture, and After Capture^[17]. His fashion and runway photography have also been published by outlets such as Cosmopolitan, Bazaar, Paris Match, Vogue Brazil, Style.com, and Elle.com.

In addition to editorial assignments, Matusik has photographed a range of actors and public figures, including Gal Gadot^[18], Brie Larson, Elliot Page, Milo Ventimiglia, Alexandra Daddario^[19], Zachary Quinto^[20], and Rosario Dawson^[21]. His portrait work has appeared in both fashion and entertainment publications.

Matusik has also exhibited his fine art photography in gallery settings. His work has been shown in exhibitions such as Sir Realist at M2 Gallery in Los Angeles and Pulchri'TUDE at the Damon Dash Gallery in New York City, where his imagery reflects the influence of painting and surrealist aesthetics.

Beyond his photographic practice, Matusik founded Digital Retouch^[22], a post-production studio specializing in digital retouching and compositing. The studio contributed to the broader adoption of digital workflows within editorial photography and has worked with numerous publications on magazine covers with notable photographers such as Greg Lotus, Neil Kirk, Marc Baptiste, Jerry Schatzberg, Tony Duran, Russell James, and Walter Chin. Digital Retouch is credited with over 50 magazine covers and hundreds of editorial projects that contributed to the industry’s transition from film to digital production, and the replacement of supermodels with celebrities, as highlighted in After Capture magazine^[23].

Matusik’s work commonly integrates photographic capture with extensive digital post-production, including compositing and retouching, as noted in an article titled Mr. Fusion, published in Range Finder magazine in 2009^[24]. His technique involved photographing subjects and elements separately into digital layers within a series of blending techniques, then reassembling them into a single composition.

Matusik was the first to incorporate computer-generated imagery (CGI) into a still photography editorial titled Candy Island, published in Genlux magazine in September 2009. As an early adopter of digital dark room, accompanied by the digital workflow^[25]Matusik's process maintains creative control from capture through final output, including color management and print pre-press. His innovative styles caught the attention of Katrin Eismann, who had him contribute to her third and fourth editions of the Photoshop Restoration and Retouching textbook^[26].

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, and raised in the suburbs of Akron, Andrew Matusik was identified at age seven as being on the spectrum but showed signs of prodigy-like artistic abilities. He attended classes at the Cleveland Museum of Art and, throughout his K–12 education, participated in customized art curricula designed to accommodate his skill level.

During this period, Matusik played a leadership role in his school’s Odyssey of the Mind program, where his team won two state championships and earned a bronze medal at the 1983 world competition. His leadership experience continued to develop in high school, where he served as captain of both the track and football teams and was elected student body president. He also received the Rotary Club Scholarship in recognition of his leadership.

While serving as student body president, Matusik helped secure local television coverage highlighting his high school’s community initiatives, including an opening and an appearance connected to ABC’s Good Morning America.

Andrew Matusik often divides his time between commercial photography, fine-art projects, and directing motion content. His combined studio and living space in Manhattan has been profiled for its adaptive, multi-purpose design and integration of his post-production facilities. Matusik studied fine art before beginning his career in Los Angeles as a photographer, later relocating to New York to expand his fashion, beauty, and advertising career.^[27] Matusik has a passion for merging traditional photography with advanced retouching and compositing. Although Matusik’s Studio was based in New York from the mid-2000s to the early 2020s^[28], he maintained a home in Los Angeles and kept an apartment in Paris. In 2022, Matusik relocated his base of operations to Southern California, where he continues to focus on celebrity and beauty production. He also serves as the expert-in-residence and professor at Vanguard University.

Andrew Matusik is known for his early adoption of digitally enhanced photography within editorial and commercial contexts. His work frequently incorporated advanced retouching, compositing, and computer-generated imagery (CGI) at a time when such techniques were still emerging within professional photography. Through this approach, Matusik’s practice reflects broader shifts in the industry toward hybrid workflows that combine photographic capture with digital image construction. His use of these methods contributed to expanding the technical scope of photographic production, particularly in fashion, beauty, and celebrity photography, where photographers increasingly assumed a more integrated role in post-production and visual design.

Matusik’s photography has appeared in fashion, entertainment, and art publications, including Italian Vogue, Shape, Genlux^[29][30], Entertainment Weekly, GQ Australia, Lucire^[31], Popular Photography, Aperture, Downtown^[32], and Maxim.

His runway and fashion photography has been published internationally, including appearances in Vogue Brazil, Elle, Cosmopolitan, Paris Match, and Style.com.^[33]

In addition to photography, he has contributed post-production work to magazines such as American Photo, Interview, InStyle, People, Sports Illustrated, Rolling Stone, Vogue Brazile, French Vogue, and Condé Nast Traveler.

Damon Dash Gallery, Tribeca New York City : Pulchri'TUDE  May 17, 2010  

M2 Gallery, Eagle Rock -Los Angeles : Sir-Realist  May 14th - June 30th, 2011

Tribeca Pop Up, Chelsea New York City : Sir-Realist August 4th, 2011

Oxy125 Art Exhibition  March 22, 2012 -Los Angeles

Create:Fixate -Snap Flash April 28th, 2012 -Los Angeles

LUST -MKL POP Gallery, Los Angeles June7th, 2012

Chelsea Pop Up, New York City September 23rd 2013

Sunni Spencer "the Gallery" : Abundance December 10th, 2017

Brauer, Laura. “Mr. Fusion.” Rangefinder. May 1, 2009.

Foiret, Cyril. “Magritte Fashion Editorial — Sir Realist.” Trendland. January 29, 2009.

“Backstage Pass by Andrew Matusik.” GenLux. [Editorial credit page].

Yan, Jack (publisher). “Gal Gadot makes waves.” Lucire. October 17, 2017.

“Making waves with Gal Gadot.” ISRAEL21c. October 23, 2017.

Tao of Photography: Yesteryear Versions of Today’s Magazines - Part 2. (n.d.-a).

May 17, 2010 - Andrew Matusik: Pulchri’Tude, Damon Dash Gallery, Tribeca, New York City

May 14 - June 30, 2011 - Andrew Matusik: Sir-Realist, M2 Gallery, Eagle Rock, Los Angeles

August 4, 2011 - Andrew Matusik: Sir-Realist (Pop-Up), Tribeca Pop Up, Chelsea, New York City

March 22, 2012 - Andrew Matusik: Oxy 125 Art Exhibition, Los Angeles

April 28, 2012 - Andrew Matusik: Create:Fixate – Snap Flash, Los Angeles

June 7, 2012 - Andrew Matusik: LUST, MKL POP Gallery, Los Angeles

September 23, 2013 - Andrew Matusik: Chelsea Pop Up, New York City

December 10, 2017 - Andrew Matusik: Abundance (Sunni Spencer “the Gallery”)

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