Sean Thomas:
Opposites Atrract

WORDS | ANDREW KAISER

Sean Thomas is quick to tell anyone that he doesn’t look like a photographer. “Normally I am asked if I am an athlete, never a photographer. But I take into consideration they are somewhat right as I played three years as a professional basketball player in the Latin American circuit.”

It is a modest response from a man with a pension for diverting the topic from his own work. He prefers to speak directly through his artistic vision, both with professional photography and his more personal fine art work.

A professional fashion photographer, Sean Thomas enjoys the challenge of working in a commercial world while still retaining his artistic sensibilities. He states, “It is where my roots in photography start and what I use to counteract and make a balance between my fashion works- clothing versus none- a full staff of make up artists, fashion stylists, assistants versus a more one on one approach with nudes. It is a challenge of opposite ends, and I love it.”

Sean Thomas was born and raised in Toronto, Canada and later studied Fine Art at the University of Maine through a basketball scholarship. For Thomas, something radically changed in his mind the moment he exchanged a paint brush for a camera. Perhaps it was the more instant gratification that pleased him, or maybe the prospect and making his vision manifest with perfect clarity. Whatever the reason, it was here that he began envision his future career as a photographer.

Side tracked for a while, Thomas kept things on hold while pursuing other dreams. He played basketball for one year in Sweden, and then another year in Argentina. It wasn’t until several years later that he began working with model agencies in both Canada and the United States, and eventually saw himself published in over thirty magazines worldwide, and even produced two fine art books.

Despite all this, Thomas will happily say, “I have only scratched the surface of where I want to go.”