ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER:

Eric Thome grew up outside Baltimore, Maryland. Some factors that influenced his interest in art, nature and history began early. His field trips to Baltimore's art museums, the National Aquarium, sites in Washington D.C., and historic Philadelphia started in elementary school. Family trips from childhood exposed Eric to Fort McHenry, the B & O Railroad Museum, Monticello, Mount Vernon, Williamsburg, and other historic American locations. Eric has been interested in Native American cultures, arts and activism since his teenage years.

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By fifteen, Eric was having a wild time with friends in Baltimore, Washington D.C. and other cities. In hindsight, Eric credits these misspent years as formative to his stylistic interest in historic architecture and urban decay. With the guidance of his parents, Eric applied to Maryland Institute College of Art because he wanted to spend all his free time in the inner city of Baltimore and had no interest in going to college otherwise. His mother had received a BFA from MICA, and she was able to help Eric prepare his portfolio based on her understanding of what one of the leading fine-art universities would be looking for in applicants' work. Eric was accepted into MICA in 1999 on his own accord, but he was required to take summer classes before his first year to meet their standards. As a Graphic Design major, the Foundation (first) year also required art history, sculpture, color theory, drawing, and painting classes. In June 2000, Eric moved to Portland, Oregon, and transferred to the Pacific Northwest College of Art.

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After a graphic design internship during his junior year at PNCA, Eric changed his major to Inter-Media Art (taking printmaking, photography, and video classes). Eric started with black-and-white photography courses in the darkroom at PNCA. His first camera was a Ricoh 35mm film camera from a pawn shop (the recommended place from his teacher to get a cheap used camera), which he used while at PNCA. This change in artistic direction followed a near-death experience in 2003 and a long-term recovery, ultimately leading Eric to move from the city to the high desert and mountains of Central Oregon.

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Rose Valley Borax Company - Alvord Desert, Oregon. © Eric Thome, 2008

This borax vat, one of two left, was operated by Chinese workers at Borax Lake from 1898 to 1904

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NO REPRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION, PUBLIC DISPLAYING, OR DERIVATIVES OF ANY KIND ARE LEGAL, ONLY THE PRINTED PRODUCT BELONGS TO THE PURCHASER.

All material on this website belongs to the author and copyright holder, Eric T. Thome of Occidental Photography LLC, unless otherwise noted. Copyrighted original material includes content, photographs, text and the Occidental Photography logo (registered with the United States Patent & Trademark Office).