Matthew S. Mahurin (born January 31, 1959) is an American illustrator, photographer and film director. Mahurin's illustrations appear in Time, Newsweek, Mother Jones, Rolling Stone, Esquire, Forbes, and The New York Times.
Mahurin's work as a photo essayist has dealt with subjects such as homelessness, people with AIDS, the Texas prison system, abortion clinics, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Belfast. His extensive work directing music videos since 1986 have resulted in working with U2, Queensrÿche, Metallica, Dreams So Real, Tracy Chapman, Tom Waits, R.E.M., Alice In Chains, Def Leppard and many other popular music performers.
Photographs by Mahurin, including Clemmons Prison, Texas (1985), Texas Prison (1988), Woman's Face in Darkness (1989) and Paris (1984), are included in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Mahurin has a reputation for photographing himself and manipulating his own likeness in his commercial photo-illustration work. Examples of his own image appearing on magazine covers are the November 29, 1993 cover of Time, with Mahurin as Sigmund Freud, the March 14, 1994 cover of Time, with himself as a caveman and the May 17, 2004 Time cover where Mahurin posed and photographed himself as an Abu Ghraib prisoner.
Mahurin is also credited with a notorious Time cover of O. J. Simpson, featuring an altered mugshot which removed the photograph's color saturation (inadvertently making Simpson's skin darker), burned the corners, and reduced the size of the prisoner ID number. This appeared on newsstands next to an unaltered copy on the cover of Newsweek, which occasioned some controversy over photo manipulation.
Awards
Film and video
Eastman Kodak Award for Lifetime Achievement - Music Video Production Association Award (2003) Best American Independent Feature - Hamptons International Film Festival, for Mugshot (1996) MTV Video Music Award for Best Post-Modern Video, Orange Crush by R.E.M. (1989) Photography and Photo-Illustration Alfred Eisenstaedt Awards for Magazine Photography "Cover Photograph of the year" for January 1997 cover of Rolling Stone of Marilyn Manson, and "Cutting Edge Photo Illustration" (1998) Art Directors Club, Merit Award for Feature Spread Illustration published by The Village Voice, "Unsafe: Why Gay Men Are Having Risky Sex" (1996)
Filmography
Feature films
Director
Feel (2006) I Like Killing Flies (2003) Mugshot (1996)
Photographs
Siesta (1987)
Short films
Director
The Reality of Hunger in New York City (2008) H2 Uh-Oh (2007)
Television
Director
Imagining America "Tribe" (segment) Alive TV "Hammer" (segment)
Videography
Director
10,000 Maniacs — "What's the Matter Here" (1987) Alice in Chains — "Angry Chair" (1992) Alice in Chains — "No Excuses" (1994) Better Than Ezra — "Rosealia" (1995) The Black Crowes — "She Talks to Angels" (1991) Body Count — "There Goes the Neighborhood" (1992) Bon Jovi — "Hey God" (1996) Bonnie Raitt — "Something to Talk About" (1991) Blind Melon — "Dear Ol' Dad" (1993) Bush — "Everything Zen" (1994) Bush — "Little Things" (1995) Tracy Chapman — "Fast Car" (1988) Cher — "Save Up All Your Tears" (1991) Cowboy Junkies — "Sweet Jane" (1991) Def Leppard — "Stand Up (Kick Love into Motion)" (1993) Def Leppard — "All I Want Is Everything" (1996) Disturbed — "The Sound of Silence" (2015) Dreams So Real — "Rough Night In Jericho" (1988) Melissa Etheridge — "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" (1994) John Fogerty — "Eye of the Zombie" (1986) Peter Gabriel — "Mercy Street" (1986) Peter Gabriel — "Red Rain" (1986) Peter Gabriel — "Come Talk to Me" (1993) Ghost — "Call Me Little Sunshine" (2022) Corey Glover — "April Rain" (1998) Jerry Harrison — "Man with a Gun" (1988) Inspiral Carpets — "Generations" (1992) Hole — "Gold Dust Woman" (1996) INXS with Ray Charles — "Please (You Got That...)" (1993) Donna Lewis — "Without Love" (1996) Living Colour — "Solace of You" (1990) Marilyn Manson — "We Are Chaos" (2020) Sarah McLachlan — "Building a Mystery" (1997) (uncredited) Metallica — "The Unforgiven" (1991) Metallica — "King Nothing" (1996) Metallica — "The Unforgiven II" (1998) Mötley Crüe — "Primal Scream" (1991) Mötley Crüe — "Home Sweet Home '91" (1991) Mystery Skulls — "Erase Me" (2017) Peter Murphy — "The Scarlet Thing in You" (1995)