Art(s) on the Air with Nathaniel Thompson

Join Tamara for an interview with photographer and multidisciplinary artist Nathaniel Thompson. He was born in Thailand, grew up on St. Simon's Island, and has now lived in Savannah for about 4 years. He primarily uses vintage and analog devices such as early digital cameras, 1980’s slide projectors, medium formats, 35mm, and instant film.

Nathaniel finds inspiration through his current geographical location, road trips, and historical reenactments, depicting images of everyday architecture that are both nostalgic and beautiful, and the relationship between the past and present. 

He has a show up now through June 21st at Cafe M here in Savannah, which includes photographs, a vintage iMac displaying his images, and a hand-bound limited edition photo book for sale.

Check out his work and follow him here:

https://www.nathanielryanthompson.com/ 
https://www.instagram.com/nr.thompson/ 

Topics in their chat include:

Nathaniel grew up with a photographer dad and grandpa and received his first camera at age 6 (a digital Kodak point-and-shoot); in high school he entered Reflections, the PTA-run art contests, and won multiple times up to the county and/or state level; armed with his first film camera, he took a 3ish-months-long solo road trip from Ohio all over the eastern U.S., generally just sleeping in his car; how his drives on the small roads between Savannah and Brunswick inspired his love of folk and outsider art, as well as estate sales and thrift stores to find ephemera and vintage photography equipment; how he recently spent time with Nomadic Photo Ark, learning their darkroom process and how to use their vintage 4x5 camera; what is lomography film?; development is happening very quickly here in the south, and he is driven to discover sites and buildings and document before they've changed; what was Kodachrome film, other than the title of the Paul Simon song?; and the recent shift of people going back to printing out photos and hanging them up in their home, or even reenacting "vacation slide viewing" by having PowerPoint parties (!). 

 

Tune in and get all the details!