Chris Thomaidis has a huge archive of works shot on film. He has a great eye for graphic forms and muted colours. Issues of urban planning, decay and suburban sprawl are recurring subjects in Chris’ work.
Portrait.
Personal work.
Chris loves experimenting. This uses metal filings and magnets. Design by the Office of Gilbert Li. For about 10 year Chris shot for the best stock houses. But over time those places gradually reduced their artist’s share of revenue to the point where it didn’t make sense for many of them to continue. At around the time Chris was leaving Getty or whatever it was (TonyStone) after a great run of course, Gilbert found him online somehow through some obscure metadata. From there Gilbert contacted Chris and was thrilled to find he lives in Toronto. Many great projects were to follow.
Chris also shot books in ice for PEN Canada on the topic of the chilling of free speech with Jim Ryce. They’ve worked together on various other projects as well. An annual report for Pearson Airport (GTAA) for example. Chris knows his gear inside out, so much that it’s not even conscious anymore. Watching him work, it’s like his muscle memory and intuition with gear, lights, composition are so highly calibrated, you’re almost inside a dream. Shot approved? A bust of motion and suddenly the set is totally changed ready for the next shot.
This is shot by Chris to help document a mural I did. Even this to me, there’s an ok-ness with the mundane which reminds me of Martin Parr sometimes. And by the way, any genius obscure photographer who really knows their stuff. If you think you’ve discovered them and ask Chris if he knows them, he’ll probably have been following their work for 30 years. 🙂
Still life work for Blog.to
Kensington Market, 2008—an outtake from a magazine shoot.
Chris Thomaidis — Personal
Graphic use of space.
