Background & Artist Statement
Thom Halls is a storyteller. He has photographed and written about the Central Coast, Valley and the Sierra for years. His images attempt to capture the diversity of this region’s people as well as its unique geographic qualities
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His passion is the portrayal of life in common settings where people live seemingly unnoticed. It is in this simplicity that he hopes a more revealing commentary on the importance of each life can be found.
His images have been published in Newsweek, Time, U.S. News & World Report, American Photographer, Christianity Today, Black & White Magazine, Best of Photojournalism V and every major newspaper around the world.
Recognition’s include an Honorable Mention from Prix De La Photographie Paris 2007 International Competition, photography and editing awards from the National Press Photographers
Association, the Society of Newspaper Design and a Penny Missouri Award for social advocacy journalism. His images have been selected for juried shows including the Aperture 55 print exhibition.
He has exhibited at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco, The Fresno Metropolitan Art Museum, University of California, Gallery F/64 in Maryland, Spectrum Fine Art Gallery and the Fresno City College Art Space Gallery and several one man shows along the Central Coast. His work is also held in public and private collections throughout the United States.
He is a former photographer for the San Luis Obispo Telegram-Tribune, photographer, photo editor and Director of Photography for The Fresno Bee and is now represented by Spectrum Fine Art Gallery in Fresno, Ca.
Thom currently teaches full-time at Fresno City College in Fresno, California with classes in Classic B&W, Photojournalism and Photo Editing & Marketing.
If you wish more information on the Photography Program at FCC or a specific class, click on the classes link or contact Thom directly at
Thomas.Halls@Fresnocitycollege.edu.
Artist Statement
Photography for me has been a journey of discovery. On any given day it transforms the landscape and it’s people into a sort of laboratory where I can gather further knowledge. My goal, in whatever I shoot, is to convey a feeling of urgency to understand. Sometimes that “understanding” lies beneath the surface of an image and you can’t see it until you return from the field, process the images and start the print process. Suddenly the discovery process begins all over again as you look at your work in a different context; The finality of the print.
Once asked to describe my perfect day, I’d have to say, it is one where I take off searching just over that next hill or through the upcoming valley to see what I can find. It’s a visual treasure hunt.
As a photojournalist I‘ve traveled to various parts of the world but I find my most fulfilling work comes from my self-inflicted insertion into a region of Central California. Here the visual opportunities abound and the diversity of its residents unlimited. As my “home” changes I find myself a reluctant recorder of what was, what is and pondering what “my home” will become.
Born on the farm, I quickly developed a non-appreciation for farm life and plotted a way out. At the same time my father, an amateur photographer, introduced me to a camera at the age of four. By my teens I was hooked. There was something about seeing an image as I had visualized it. What was even more remarkable to me was that the more I looked at the drugstore print, the more I found.
Though I plotted my escape of the farm lifestyle, I now find my photography betrays me because many of my images are centered on the simplicity of the rural life and themes of the country. Artistically I find myself most comfortable there.
Upon graduation from college I worked at various newspaper jobs, enjoying the incredible variety of situations in which journalists find themselves. Eventually I moved to Fresno, California where I worked at The Fresno Bee, first as a photographer, then an editor and finally the Director of Photography.
At one time or another I have done just about every type of photography from portraiture, still life, photojournalism and commercial. In 2000 I left editing and started teaching Photojournalism, Picture Editing and Marketing at Fresno City College where today I continue my love of black and white and fine art photography.
All my work today is digital, although I have an extensive catalogue of negatives from which many of my vintage prints are made..