Matthew Carlson is the Beginning, Advanced and AP Photography Teacher here at Ida B. Wells. Carlson was born in San Francisco and then moved to Santa Rosa where he spent most of his childhood. He has been a teacher for the last 12 years, ten of which have been at Ida B. Wells and two as a substitute. He went to Santa Rosa Junior College and then went to California State University Long Beach for printmaking. Carlson became interested in photography in high school. “I went to a small high school that had a little dark room and I found that being in a dark room is just a really magical place to be and so continuing to work in the dark room here brought me back to my high school experience,” said Carlson. He encourages anyone that is passionate or interested in photography to take his class or go talk to him about photography and making images.

Written by Palmer Andersen, Intro to Communications, Fall 2023

Wilson Photography Flickr page