New York-based photographer Thomas Prior set off on a trip to document the annual National Pyrotechnic Festival in Tultepec Mexico (State of Mexico). The festival honors the patron saint of the city Saint Juan de la Dios , where over 80% of the country’s fireworks are produced.
Commercial and non-commercial photographer, Thomas’s feel for the decisive moment, for the vantage point that reveals a sliver of a place’s soul, he has accumulated years of on-the-job experience. His work is instinctively documentary in style, but led by the possibilities for storytelling and visual impact framed within a single shot. Thomas is constantly driven to look and look again, retaining the visual acuity of the first-time visitor.
Personal projects follow his interest in dangerous recreation and his eye for the offbeat. Seeking out the absurd or incongruous detail, Thomas reveals in the unexpected beauty and humor of everyday life. He has photographed the community that thrives in Willets Point, New York; a pyrotechnics festival in Mexico; marginal communities in Rwanda. What unites his work and enables an easy relationship with his subjects is an inquisitive interest and passionate enthusiasm for what’s going on around him.
Thomas Prior was born in Los Angeles in 1979 and spent several years in London. He has lived in New York since attending the School of Visual Arts, where he gained a BFA in Fine Arts (2002). In 2010 he was included in PDN’s 30.
Clients include: Castrol, Microsoft and Urban Outfitters. His work has been published by Afar, Architect, Bloomberg Businessweek, Capital, ESPN: The Magazine, British Esquire, The Fader, Fast Company, GQ, Marie Claire, Men’s Health, Men’s Journal, MSNBC, New York Magazine, Outside, Popular Mechanics, Rolling Stone, Runner’s World, Spin, TIME Magazine, Teen Vogue, Vogue.com and Vice.
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Severine Morel
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