Dragutin Matić was born on 10 January 1888 in the village of Kaletinac on the slopes of Suva Planina.

[1] His mother and father died when he was very young and his oldest brother Đorđe, nicknamed Đora, raised him and several other siblings.

[2]Matić also withdrew through Albania and was transferred on the Salonica front where he took part in its breakthrough and liberation of Serbia.

With his commitment, in 1930s a rural water supply system was built in Kaletinec which is still operational today.

When the occupation of Yugoslavia began in World War II, his wife took his military decorations and some other documents, and buried them in the sand by a nearby river.

[1] At the time of his death he was 82 and left behind his sons Ranđel, a farmer and Blagoje, journalist at Politika, as well as his daughter Kristina and 23 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

[1] His son Blagoje Matić later wrote that he was a modest man and he started a story about the events of the wars, he interrupted the moment when he was supposed to mention his personality.

Soon after the photography was presented at the photo exhibition in New York City in 1916, and was later printed as a postcard when it became world-famous, symbolizing the Serbian struggle in the First World War.

That year, the gramophone record March on the Drina with the famous photography on the front cover.

[8] The same year, Matić's son Blagoje published a book titled Moj otac: Oko Sokolovo (My father, the Hawkeye).

[9] A memorial plaque with the famous image has been on display on the Veterans' Club Building in Belgrade since February 2015, where it was unveiled by then Serbian President Tomislav Nikolić for Statehood Day with the presence of general Ljubiša Diković, Chief of the Serbian General Staff, and Bratislav Gašić, Minister of Defence.

[10] In the 2010s, there were plans to reconstruct the house in which Matić was born, his headstone, as well as the road leading to his native village of Kaletinac for an estimated four million dinars.