The artistic side of that ‘WordPress’ guy
I’m sure blogging geeks around the web may have been well aware of Matt Mullenweg’s photography background. It was, however, a surprise to me.
These photos chronicle his travels. Some pleasure, some business, some blurred lines. Color, composition and timing intersect into a revealing look at the places, experiences and people along the way in this young man’s life.
What surprised me most about Mullenweg’s tale was how much his life was changed simply because he was looking for a better way to publish his work on the web.
Isn’t that always the story though? Someone working on a plan ‘a’ comes across a problem or shortcoming and the fix they need does not exist. So they throw one together. Before long their life is taken over by a plan ‘b’ thanks to whatever fix they created. All the while, that original plan ‘a’ is there. Oh sure, it may be now in the roll of a hobby, but it’s there nonetheless.
A Little History
In the summer of 2002, Mullenweg added fixes to some blog software that he was using to post his photos. This would later inspire the building blocks for WordPress.
From there he worked developing things like Ping-O-Matic, which alerts search engines like Technorati and My Yahoo! when a blog is updated.
Thanks to a miscalculated pricing strategy by competitor Movable Type and a job offer from CNET in 2004, WordPress was becoming the standard tool for bloggers everywhere. Soon after themes were introduced.
Then came Askimet, a plugin to ward off comment spammers. The innovations kept coming as Mullenweg founded Automattic in 2005 and in March 2007 he was named one of the ’50 Most Important People on the Web’ by PC World.
Here are a few samples of his photography:
Check out more of Matt’s photos here
See Also:
Ma.tt
