Preston Lewis Thomas | Curriculum Vitae

I am a photographer, musician, and writer. I make photographs of what surrounds me, filling in the interstitial spaces of photojournalism, street photography and fine art - without privileging either form. I believe something fabulous resides in the ordinary.

I seek to recount a story with every photograph. Sometimes, my subjects are the humans I encounter who are moved to share amusing anecdotes, or emotionally exhausting experiences from days gone by. On occasion, my muse is an empty room that is, paradoxically, teeming with life. Everything I see wants to be a photograph…

My influences are many – photographers, musicians, painters, writers, etc. Presently living rent free in my head: Gordon Parks, Avedon, Van Der Zee, Brigitte Lacombe, Warhol, Basquiat, Norman Lewis, Fan Ho, Ansel Adams, Keith Jarrett, Laurie Anderson, Joni Mitchell, Bill T. Jones’ “A Good Man”, Miles (of course, Miles!) and Isabel Wilkerson.

Focus.

- PLT

 

Me, pretending to be a right-eye shooter. Sad.

 

Photographic Exhibitions

  • 2023 Connecting to Our Common Ground | Brushwood Center, PBS America Outdoors

  • 2019: Discussion & Slide Presentation: Memory and Archive, Mana Contemporary Chicago: Morning Prayer Lake

  • 2019: Photo Exhibit: LA HABANA | Lens Paintings from Dreamland

  • 2019: Photo Exhibit: The Adjacent Shore

  • 2018: Photo Exhibit: Surface + Texture

  • 2018: Photo Exhibit: Faces from the Women’s March, Chicago

  • 2017: Photographs from my series Dance Encounters Architecture Licensed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects - lead architects of the Obama Library

  • 2017: Photo Exhibit: Wanderlust and Dreamland in La Habana

  • 2017: Photo Exhibit: Through My Lens, A Black Girl’s Magic

  • 2015: Featured Artist in the Harlem Fine Arts Show “Beyond Color” Exhibit

Symposiums & Teaching

  • 2017: Photographic Symposium for the Chicago Architecture Biennial: Dance Encounters Architecture

  • 2016 - 2017: Teaching Artist for the University of Chicago's Logan Center for the Arts

  • Awards

  • 2016: Recipient of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs (DCASE) Individual Artist Grant

Collections

  • Dance Encounters Architecture: Licensed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects

  • Work currently held in Private Collections: United States, Canada, UK, Argentina