Radar Nine - Matt Held Facebook Portraits

Matt Held, a fine artist with a specialisation in portraiture, was blocked. After upping sticks from Seattle to NYC in his late thirties, young family in tow, as a last chance at 'making it', he became a stay at home Dad with the couple's new child. Nothing he did worked. Until, as an exercise in skintone, he painted his wife's facebook profile photo. Shortly after, the "I'll have my portrait painted by Matt Held" facebook group was born, and Matt was presented with no end of source material, inspiration, and an instant international network of influencers. Brooklyn Museum came calling, the blog posts spread and his numbers soared. We hang with Matt's family, and talk to No.16, No.33 and No.36 about why they were keen to be painted by someone they've never met, and what the project means to them.