Ben Thomas (photographer)
Early life
Thomas was born in 1981 in Adelaide, Australia. After developing his photographic skills making music videos,[1] Thomas moved to Melbourne and switched to SLR still photography.[2]
Career in photography
Thomas uses a number of photographic and post processing techniques, mostly concentrating on the use of colour, perspective and a miniaturisation technique called "tilt shift photography".[3][4] He has been exhibited internationally, been featured by Apple,[5] Adobe, and won the 2018 Hasselblad Masters along with the ACMP Projections Art Photographer of the Year Award in 2008.[6]
Thomas was the winner of the 2015 125Live Vision, Innovative Photographer of the year award.[7] And also the 2015 Desktop Create Awards Photography category winner[8]
Using a helicopter to take high-angle photographs,[9] Thomas created a series of miniatures entitled "Cityshrinker" in 2007, depicting a number of cities around the world. This work was finalised in his book, Tiny Tokyo; The Big City Made Mini. (Chronicle Books)[10] which brought about the end of Cityshrinker and a hiatus from photography while developing new work.[11]
Thomas has also created a collection of photographs which he has called "Accession", in which large urban scenes are deconstructed and reconstructed in a kaleidoscopic style.[12] Thomas has also exhibited a number of his landscape and still images internationally. He had represented Sony as part of the Sony Xperia Academy, showcasing Sony's flagship mobile camera capabilities.[13]
Thomas was a 2015 artist in residence at the Villa Lena Foundation, Tuscany cited as the inspiration and genesis of the "Chroma" series.[14]
Thomas was commissioned by The New Yorker Magazine for an artwork for the 7 March 2016 edition's short story, "Buttony" and again in March 2017 for the photoessay 'Dubai, the worlds Vegas'.[15] Thomas' "Chroma" series was also featured by Apple for their 2018 iPad Pro announcement.
Ben is a recipient of the 2018 Hasselblad Masters award and is now an ambassador for the brand.[16]
References
- http://streetfightmag.com/2011/08/17/to-understand-hyperlocal-shrink-the-way-you-think/ "To Understand Hyperlocal, ‘Shrink’ the Way You Think". Street Fight Mag, 17 August 2011 by Rick Robinson.
- "Tilt-shift photographer captures world in miniature". News.com Australia.
- "Tokyo in tilt-shift: the big city made small". The Telegraph.
- "Portfolio: Ben Thomas reveals why Tokyo is perfectly suited to tilt-shift photography". The Independent.
- Apple (30 October 2018), Introducing the new iPad Pro – Apple, retrieved 2 November 2018
- "ACMP Projections ’08 – and ’09 Call for Entries" Archived 6 February 2015 at the Wayback Machine DG Design Network.
- "125 Live awards" 2015 Awards.
- "Desktop Create Awards" 2015 Photography Category.
- "ilt-shift photographer captures world in miniature" Simon Crerar. Herald Sun. 9 February 2013.
- "Ben Thomas Depicts Tokyo as a Tiny Version of Itself Using Tilt-Shift Photography Tiny Tokyo: The Big City Made Mini by Ben Thomas". Inhabit.
- "Ben Thomas – Jeffery Saddoris". Jeffery Saddoris. 27 January 2016. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
- "Ben Thomas’s Amazing Digital Photo Collages". High Snobiety
- "Ben Thomas’s Sony Xperia Photography Academy". Sony Xperia Professional Photographer Academy.
- "Process Driven Podcast with Ben Thomas" Archived 26 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine with Jeffery Saddoris.
- "The New Yorker Magazine" for the 7 March 2016 edition for the weekly short story 'Buttony" artwork.
- "Ben Thomas". hasselblad.com. Retrieved 2 November 2018.