If you’re a fan of the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, then you’ve probably noticed the splashy host and musical guest portraits coming up between commercial breaks. Usually, they’re playful and purposefully iconic—Maya Rudolph portraying Faye Dunaway’s unforgettable no-wire-hangers meltdown in Mommie Dearest for SNL’s Mother’s Day episode last year, for example. For the past almost 25 years there’s been one woman behind the camera: Mary Ellen Matthews.

Those images are called “bumpers,” a word coined by Edie Baskin, who was the show’s main photographer from its inception in 1975 to 2000. “They’re called that because they bump up between commercials,” Matthews explains Zooming in from Italy, her vibrant energy felt even from thousands of miles away. In 1993, Matthews left her job as a music publicist at TVT Records, a job she enjoyed because it offered her access to New York’s underground scene. “Seeing small bands all over the East Village, that was my favorite thing to do; Continental Club, CBGBs, all of that,” Matthew says.

The day she left TVT—Matthews can’t remember if she quit or got fired—she called her answering machine from a payphone and got a message from her friend Leslie saying that she had just left her position as Baskin’s assistant and would Matthews want to take over her role? “Amazing synchronicity,” Matthews recalls. “I just went in, interviewed, and started working.” This was during SNL’s 19th season which, for context, was Sarah Silverman’s only season and Adam Sandler’s first as a main player. Wayne’s World had just come out and both Mike Myers and Dana Carvey were still cast members. “I just couldn’t believe that I was there. It took a while to get my head around the fact that I was on 8H; it was Chris Farley and Phil Hartman, it was huge.”

Matthews’ first shoot for SNL was with Matt Damon, but in her time at 30 Rockefeller she has photographed everyone from GEN V cover star Tate McRae to rock god Mick Jagger (and the entire cast and crew of the show), taking a personalized approach to each. “I try to come in with more ideas than we need,” she says. Matthews’ time with the musical guest and host takes place the Thursday leading up to the show. “Photo shoots aren’t the most favorite thing for people to indulge in. So, I make it really fun and I try to shoot fast,” she says. “My thing is keeping the joy at the front.”

Though Matthews and her team of four full-timers and three to four interns do their homework leading up to their Thursday with the stars, when you’re shooting some of the world’s most dynamic artists and comedians, improvising is just part of the fun. “There are a lot of things that happen in the moment and I’ll be like, ‘Someone go run and find a red flying V guitar.’ Thank goodness that, number one, I have a complete A-team that works for me and, secondly, our props department is unparalleled.” It’s actually impossible to imagine prop and costume teams better than SNL’s considering that, in the show’s 50th season premiere this past September, they managed to transform Bowen Yang into JD Vance, a fully-bratted out Charli XCX, and Moo Deng, the Thai baby pygmy hippo that’s gone viral on TikTok.

A standout spur-of-the-moment memory for Matthews was Season 36, Episode 10; Paul Rudd hosted and Paul McCartney was the musical guest. “First of all, someone of that legendary a status is earth-shattering to me,” she begins, “People like Paul McCartney or Mick Jagger, they’re your heroes.” When Matthews saw both Pauls, she thought, “Why don’t we make Paul Rudd into a young Paul McCartney? Mop-top Paul.” So she asked SNL’s Emmy Award-winning hair and makeup department, manned by Jodi Mancuso, and Emmy Award-winning costume department, headed by Tom Broecker, if they could make it happen. “Somebody was running around Manhattan to find a left-handed base that was specific to what Paul plays,” she says, echoing their commitment to getting the shot just right, but with a different Paul, which they did. “It’s really fun to redo a great masterpiece with a little SNL twist to it—did I send you Casey Affleck as the Caravaggio?”

Matthews is but one of the hundreds of people that has contributed to the force that is Saturday Night Live. Her commitment to play is part of the magic that’s kept the show on air for 50 seasons, offering American society a reprieve from all the politics and grim news plaguing our feeds, and making us laugh about it. “SNL keeps their foot in it and helps us understand the world in a way that isn’t drudgery,” Matthews says, “It’s such a fun job.” 

This story appears in the pages of V151: now available for purchase!

Photography Mary Ellen Matthews

Text Savannah Sobrevilla