A Selection of Covers I have Photographed over the Years with Stories

Photographers Taiwan Review Magazine Tear Sheet
Taiwan Review: Cover Photography by Rich Matheson

 

Taking this photo at Tainan’s world renown Ten Drum Art Percussion Culture Park was a pleasure. It was part of an assignment for a photo essay on traditional performance troupes. I had worked with them before and they have always been accommodating and professional. I had two drummers to work with and set them up in a run down warehouse for an environmental shot showing a bit about their background; they bought and cleaned up a run-down sugar refinery for their center. It is now a thriving cultural business.

Photographers Bradt Guide Book Cover Tear Sheet
Bradt Guide Book Cover photographed by Rich Matheson

 

This cover shot of the Hla’alua (Salaua) Chief at a festival in Namasia. The chief passed away not long after the guide became available. Sadly, I didn’t have a chance to personally show him a copy. I suspect he never saw it.

Photographers Bradt Travel Guide Magazine Catalog Tear Sheet
Bradt Travel Guide Catalog Photograph by Rich Matheson

 

I put together a comprehensive submission for the photo editor at Bradt and she told me they really liked the images. They later bought this image of an elderly Bunun Aboriginal woman smoking a pipe for the cover of their catalog. They ‘photoshopped’ Steven Crook’s book into her hand.

Photographers Topics Travel & Culture Magazine Tear Sheet, Tainan City, Taiwan
Photographer Rich Matheson’s Topics Travel & Culture Magazine Cover

 

This photograph was part of a submission for Steven Crook’s Taiwanese Opera article. They used 11 photos for that article (two full page), another three for an article on the Fairy Pitta (one full page) and the cover. As a freelancer I am usually paid per photo used and I never know how many will be used; that was a good one!

Photographer Rich Matheson's Xpat Magazine Tear Sheet,
Photographer Rich Matheson’s Xpat Magazine Cover photograph

 

I was a staff photographer for Xpat Magazine’s short life. It was a great magazine, but there wasn’t really a market for an English language magazine in Tainan. After editor Matt Gibson left Tainan, the magazine just couldn’t survive.

Photographers FYI South Magazine Tear Sheet, Tainan City, Taiwan
Photographer Rich Matheson: FYI South Magazine Cover

 

I was a regular photographer for FYI South Magazine in its heyday. I had at least 12 cover photos for them. This one was taken on my honeymoon trip with my wife. We slept in the back of our little blue truck. Woke up to a beautiful ‘cloud sea’ in the morning.

Photographers FYI South Magazine Tear Sheet
Photographer Rich Matheson’s FYI South Magazine Cover

 

Another cover for FYI South. A variant of this (Editor Steven Crook in a Santa outfit) was used across the board in all three Compass magazines; Taipei, Taichung and Tainan.

Yanshui Beehive Fireworks Festival
Photographer Rich Matheson’s FYI South Magazine cover photograph

 

Yanshui Beehive Fireworks Festival has always been a good seller. This is the first (and only) cover I have had for the festival. It isn’t really illustrative of the festival, but cover photos are often chosen for their ability to hold text.

Keeping Up With the War God, Taiwan as it Seemed to Me
Photographer Rich Matheson’s ‘Keeping Up With the War God, Taiwan as it Seemed to Me’ book cover Photo

 

Steven Crook’s first book gets a new lease on life as an eBook. Cover photograph is Tainan’s Sacrificial Rites Martial (War God) temple.

Taiwan Folktales Bunun Photograph
Taiwan Folktales cover Photograph by Photographer Rich Matheson

 

This photograph of two Taiwanese Bunun Aboriginal women holding hands was taken at the Malatangia Festival at the Maya Elementary School (which is now buried) in Namasia.

Taiwan for Culture Vultures: Taiwan's Historical, Religious, Artistic And Architectural Highlights
Guide Gecko Cover Photograph

Cover of Taiwan Travel App from Gecko — again authored by the prolific and highly respected Taiwan writer Steven Crook. (Both kindle edition and  iOS iPhone edition). This was difficult to provide because it had to look good very small. It is usually displayed 50px by 50px and intricate details are lost at this size.

Photographer Rich Matheson's China Post Newspaper Tear Sheet, Tainan City, Taiwan
Photographer Rich Matheson’s China Post Newspaper Travel Section Cover

 

The smoking Bunun lady on another cover, the cover of China Post Newspaper’s Travel Section.

Photographer Rich Matheson’s Taiwan Map Cover

 

Something a little different — a map cover. The flower on the left was near the peak of Yushan and the rover valley on the right is Shuang Lian Chu in Namasia. The suspension bridge barely survived Typhoon Morakot. I keep meaning to do a before/after series with this view.

Photographers Rickshaw Magazine Tear Sheet, Tainan City, Taiwan
Photographer Rich Matheson’s photos on Rickshaw Magazine’s cover

 

This was my very first cover photograph, 2002. It was a composite that I made to accompany the article (back when I had time to work on composites on the computer) for this long-gone magazine. It probably took me many hours to put all the elements together on a very slow computer.

Here are a few more cover shots that I can no longer find:

South Magazine
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Taiwan Fun
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Compass

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