By David Gilbey
Today’s Lighting Hero is not a lighting designer, has little technical knowledge and yet his passion and contribution to lighting are immense, he has the love, the ear, and the respect of the whole lighting community, he is the Editor of Arc magazine, arguably the world’s best architectural lighting publication, today’s Lighting Hero is Matt Waring.
Matt is a good egg, a top bloke, and a true gentleman that freely admits that as a journalist he knew nothing about lighting before landing the gig! But lighting has that way of getting into your psyche and now he is hooked. This newfound passion jumps from the journal, you give and you receive, the lighting design community support and contributes as Matt curates, spotlights, and pays sincere tributes to great projects and even greater causes in lighting.
He champions and often moderates talks on incredibly worthy causes, The Women in Lighting Movement, Biophilia, light and well-being, dark skies, sustainability, and beautiful, yet fully responsible lighting. His talk on the ‘World Cup’ of lighting design on the VLD.Community platform is a must-see, comparing the world’s lighting design, though he sat on the fence at the end, a true diplomat, he never announced the winner LOL
He is a key component of the dark awards and the LiGHT22 soon-to-be-23 show, the Darc sessions, he will organize events during design weeks and wherever lighting designers are in attendance, you will find Matt, always so supportive, always so encouraging.
Humility, empathy, and understanding are fantastic attributes, probably more so if you are a journalist Matt has come into lighting and fitted right in, he has a great sense of fun, an eye for beauty, and a compassionate soul, and with regards to lighting, he is now family! Matt Waring, you are a lighting hero and we salute you!
