Preston Lewis Thomas | Curriculum Vitae

Photographer
Current Residence: Chicago, IL

 

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. I could go on, but we already know that the world looks very different to Artists.

My influences are many – photographers, musicians, painters, etc. Omnipresent forces such as Gordon Parks, Avedon, Van Der Zee, Warhol, Basquiat, Norman Lewis, Ansel Adams, the lyrics of Joni Mitchell, Bill T. Jones’ “A Good Man”, compel and shape my work, along with my early and continuing exposure to Verve album covers.

I shoot with Intent.

- PLT

 
 

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