Bio
Matthew Hoyos
Few artists capture the vibrant thrill of modern city life as effectively as Matthew Hoyos. Born in Colombia and raised in South Florida, the Miami-based creator sees his town as a living, breathing organism, full of surprises and endowed with hidden beauty. Now, with his most intimate portraits of his hometown to date, Matthew is on his way to becoming one of the digital world’s most vital portrayers of 21st century cities.
It started with a voice in his head. Fresh out of high school, his intuition spoke to him loud and clear: buy a video camera. He had no plan and no idea what he was getting himself into. He just knew he had to, so he did. And the moment he did, his life changed. He became obsessed, learning and creating day and night, teaching himself to shoot, to edit and to produce. And just as he began finishing his first videos, something happened: a brand-new video website appeared, right as he needed one. It was called YouTube. He started posting, and his videos took off almost instantly. He was getting thousands of views a day, and his subscribers kept growing. Then one of his videos crossed a million views and went viral, before “going viral” was even a thing.
That’s when the phone started ringing. After his videos went viral, television networks began reaching out to him. A couple of years after buying that camera, he landed his first licensing deal. Then came the moment that made it real: in 2010, he turned on truTV, a channel he had watched for years, and saw his own work on the screen. That same year, he made filmmaking his full-time career, and from there, things really started taking off. In 2011, one of his music videos won Music Video of the Year at the Best in Dade Awards, and more major networks kept reaching out, licensing his videos for BBC One, FOX News, Nickelodeon and more. And in 2015, after several years of documenting Miami through time-lapse photography, he finished Myami, his first Miami time-lapse film and a work he is deeply proud of, and screened it at a gallery during Art Basel week.
Then, in 2017, his intuition spoke again. He got his hands on his first drone, and it was like starting from scratch. He had to learn everything all over again: how to fly, how to see, how to shoot from the air. But it opened up a whole new dimension. The city he had been filming for a decade suddenly revealed itself from above. “You learn so much about the world when you see it from above,” he says. “It’s really enlightening.” Then he took the time-lapse technique he had spent years perfecting on the ground and brought it into the sky, evolving it into drone hyperlapses. The result was a series of Miami hyperlapse films: The City That Floats, Myami 2020, Magic Hour in the Magic City and Moons Over Miami. The films, along with his standalone drone visuals, took off on Instagram, amassing millions of views and a following of more than 120,000, and establishing him as one of Miami’s drone pioneers.
Then the world stopped. When COVID shut everything down in 2020, Matthew finally had something he had never had before: time. So he started a series of his own. He called it Matt Geo, and the idea was simple: explore the world, from above and below, and chase the mysteries and the unknown he had always wanted to film. It began in his own backyard with The Key to Biscayne, where he discovered the marine life thriving right there in Biscayne Bay. Next came Forever Glades, exploring the Everglades from the air and the water, learning its species and why the river of grass matters. Then a road trip down the full length of the Florida Keys. From there, he started branching out, releasing episodes from Havana, Costa Rica and Medellín. And then he just kept going. In the years since, he has travelled and filmed across the world: Rio de Janeiro, the Galápagos Islands, Italy, nearly every major city in the United States, and the length and breadth of his native Colombia, gathering an extensive archive of footage, some of it released and much of it still to come.
His newest work hides in plain sight. Somewhere around 2020, while flying over the city, Matthew noticed something from above: the bridge to Brickell Key, meeting the shoreline of Brickell, formed a perfect letter A. And an idea hit him: spell Miami, with Miami itself. What followed was a years-long game of hide-and-seek. One by one, he hunted the letters down, from the sky and from the street, by day and by night, until, in 2025, it all finally clicked into place. The result is Talk of Miami: five photographs that together spell the city’s name in its own structures, water, roads and light, in two editions, Day and Night. He unveiled it on March 5, 2025, at a self-produced show in Wynwood, where it was met with an electric response. It is the most unique piece he has ever made, and the one he is proudest of.
Twenty years in, Matthew hasn’t slowed down for a day. He wakes up every morning and gets straight to creating, and he is still at it when the night ends. Filming, flying, editing, learning new techniques, chasing the next idea: day in, day out, full time. The drone will always be a big part of his work, but it is only one tool. He makes films, photographs and art of every kind, and his work is making an impact: inspiring new drone pilots and new creators every day, reaching an audience that is stronger than ever, and opening doors to opportunities he once only dreamed of.
And he feels like he is just getting started. His best ideas are still ahead of him, with big projects already in motion. Next, he is turning toward documentary filmmaking, taking it to the next level with stories that reach people and leave a mark. Through all of it, one goal has never changed: to open people’s eyes to the thrills and mysteries of the modern world. Matthew is living his dream and his purpose, and he wouldn’t trade a single day of it. And if his story inspires even one person to find their own purpose, chase it and live their dream, then every frame has been worth it.
You learn so much about the world when you see it from above.
It’s really enlightening.
Matthew Hoyos