'A Deeper Beauty': New Exhibition Displays Oklahoma Photography From Well-Known Filmmaker

A new exhibition in a Paseo art gallery aims to show how Oklahoma is as captivating as any place in the world.

JRB at the Elm is featuring the work of filmmaker and Prairie Surf Media co-founder, Matt Payne.

However, this exhibition features his work through a different medium, still photography.

The world through 105 millimeters, may give you a lens into his world.

“You’re capturing beauty in these places that are totally unique to these moments in time,” says Payne.

Payne works to capture beauty in the small and large, but he also works to see beyond beauty.

“I want there to be more than a photograph,” Payne explains. “I want there to be a story.”

There are stories across the 6 continents he’s travelled to displayed in the JRB gallery.

“Some of the most beautiful places in the world,” he says - adding there is none he finds more beautiful than where he calls home.

“To me, the Oklahoma photographs are the ones I’m most proud of. They’re the most unique,” he says. “As much natural beauty, or as much cultural beauty as everywhere I’ve been.”

Payne's Oklahoma home called to him during his time in L.A. It’s the home where he helped open Prairie Surf Studios and started Prairie Surf Creative.

It’s a home where skies have no limits.

“These post storm mammatus clouds, these collapsing super cells, a super cell spinning up, foggy morning,” Payne says of his favorite weather events to shoot. “What ultimately I want is, I want the world to celebrate Oklahoma the way that I celebrate it; the way we collectively celebrate it.”

It’s a way to celebrate the beauty captured in 46.9 pixels. It’s all through a lens picked up when Matt’s own story took a turn.

“When a friend of mine passed away,” Payne said. “I tried really seeking out beauty to get through some of the pain that caused.”

There’s salve in each shutter and beauty in each story. The story of a unique moment in time and of the one who see it in 105 millimeters.

“They’re a deeper beauty. It’s the beauty of our people,” Payne says. “How beautiful the souls of the people are here.”

The exhibition will be open through the end of April.