Matthew Leifheit is an American photographer, educator, and magazine editor. He holds degrees from the Rhode Island School of Design and the Yale School of Art, where he is currently on faculty as a Critic. Leifheit is Editor-in-Chief of MATTE Magazine, an independent platform for new ideas in photography founded in 2010. His work has been widely published, including in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Aperture, TIME, and Artforum, and exhibited internationally. He has received residencies at Yaddo and The Watermill Center, as well as grants from the New York State Council on the Arts and the Fund for Lesbian and Gay Studies. In 2025 Leifheit received a Lucie Award for “Photo Editor of the Year” alongside Eve Lyons. He is the recipient of a 2026 Guggenheim Fellowship in Photography.

Res Tahan Julian is an artist and educator based in Brooklyn, NY. Born in Paterson, New Jersey, Res graduated with a BA in Sociology and Studio Art from Smith College, an MFA from the Yale School of Art and a post-master’s in curatorial studies from CuratorLab at Konstfack University in Stockholm, Sweden. He is an alum of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and his work has been supported by residencies at Baxter Street, Atlantic Center for the Arts and the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, receiving grants from the Fund for Lesbian and Gay Studies at Yale University and the Swedish Arts Grant Committee. Res was shortlisted for a Lucie Foundation Scholarship, received a Saatchi Art Rising Star Award and his book Towers of Thanks, published in 2017 by Loose Joints, was a finalist for the Lucie Photo Book Prize.

His work has been exhibited at BRIC in Brooklyn, Invisible-Exports in New York, Widener Gallery at Trinity College in Connecticut, Shulamit Nazarian in Los Angeles and Casemore Kirkeby in San Francisco amongst other venues. Recent publications featuring their work include Aperture, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Girls Like Us, Cultured Magazine, Vice Magazine, W Magazine, The Paris Review and Matte Magazine.

Res is an Adjunct Professor at Princeton University, Borough of Manhattan Community College and faculty at the International Center for Photography. He formerly held teaching positions at the University of Gothenburg, Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam, Smith College and Image Text Ithaca MFA.