Dirt(y) Work.
I’m Matt Pierce — a freelance journalist and photographer with boots in the dirt and a camera slung over my shoulder. I don’t chase clicks. I chase conversations, the kind that happen on back porches, gas station counters, and courthouse steps in places most folks overlook. My reporting comes from rural America, where the stakes are real, the people are sharp, and the stories are often buried beneath layers of silence and shame. I dig those stories out, one image and one interview at a time
Truth reveals grit.
Grit uncovers truth.
Hitting The Center.
I believe journalism should connect people — not divide them into algorithms and echo chambers. That’s why I walked away from the daily news cycle and leaned into something more raw and honest. Whether I’m covering the aftermath of a school shooting in Uvalde or documenting a forgotten farming town on the edge of nowhere, I aim to show readers that the human element still matters. Empathy, complexity, contradiction — that’s the real story.
I’m not here to sell a narrative. I’m here to ask better questions and photograph what’s actually in front of me. My lens doesn’t filter for politics or polish — it captures people, pain, resilience, and whatever truth I can wrestle out of the moment. Editors looking for rural reporting that respects intelligence over outrage, reach out. I’ve got stories that don’t fit the usual mold — and neither do the people I tell them about.
Millions have seen my work, but I don’t measure impact in clicks or retweets. I measure it in the quiet moments: a reader who finally feels seen, a subject who says, “You got it right,” or a town that starts talking to itself again. Journalism isn't dead — it’s just stuck in traffic. I'm taking the backroads and sending dispatches along the way.
Call it reporting, call it documentary, call it social exploration — I call it necessary. In a time when truth is traded for engagement and rural lives are written off as flyover filler, I’m out here recording the human side of the American experiment. I’m not here to shout over the noise. I’m here to listen, look closely, and report back.