Ben Thomas (photographer)
Benjamin "Ben" Thomas is an award-winning Australian photographer,[1] fine artist and author who is known for his conceptual photography, mostly centred on the subject of highly populated city and urban scenes utilising various techniques such as advanced color manipulation, mirroring and tilt-shift photography.
Early life
Born in Adelaide, Australia. After developing his photographic skills making music videos,[2] Thomas moved to Melbourne and switched to SLR still photography.[3]
Career in photography
Thomas uses a number of photographic and post processing techniques, mostly concentrating on the use of color, perspective and a miniaturisation technique called "tilt shift photography".[4][5] He has been exhibited internationally, been featured by Apple,[6] Adobe, and won the 2018 Hasselblad Masters along with the ACMP Projections Art Photographer of the Year Award in 2008.[7]
Thomas was the winner of the 2015 125Live Vision, Innovative Photographer of the year award.[8] And also the 2015 Desktop Create Awards Photography category winner[9]
Using a helicopter to take high-angle photographs,[10] 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)[11] which brought about the end of Cityshrinker and a hiatus from photography while developing new work.[12]
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.[13] 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.[14]
Thomas was a 2015 artist in residence at the Villa Lena Foundation, Tuscany cited as the inspiration and genesis of the "Chroma" series.[15]
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'.[16] 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.[17]
References
- "Accession: Ben Thomas" Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Scandinavian-architects eMagazine
- 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.