Matthew Cylinder was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1986 and raised in Phoenix, Arizona. He spent his life as a cartoonist, architect in training, artist, film-maker and photographer in high school. He went on to studying photojournalism for two years at Northern Arizona University. Cylinder worked as a photojournalist for a year at the Lumberjack Newspaper documenting local events, social and drug issues throughout Flagstaff, AZ.

Cylinder then moved out east to attend the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in Providence, RI. While at RISD, Matthew started building small scale sets to create his photography leading up to his thesis work "Fear Conditioning" which uses photography, sculpture, drawing and resin. How news media impacts society and environmental issues take precedent for Cylinder, who's concern with the present degradation of ecosystems.

Cylinder graduated from Rhode Island School of Design and resides in New York City.