Exploring! Arthur Thompson was born and raised in Los Angeles. After studying Mandarin Chinese for 2 years, he lived with a local family and studied at a secondary school in Chongqing, China for ten months during his third year of high school. It was during this initial year abroad that he began to take an interest in photography. Currently, he is studying Chinese & Linguistics at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.
KALTBLUT: You have pictures of lots of different places, is there a place that inspires you more than others?
Arthur: The longer I stay in one place, the less I am able to photograph it. Maybe this is why I like traveling so much. So far, I think my “best” photos have been taken in Asia (but I could just be saying this just because I really enjoy Asia). No place brings more inspiration to me than others. Any place is equally inspirational as the next. It just depends on where I am right now. When I first arrive in a new place, I find just about everything to be inspiring. Then I gradually narrow in on the things I really like. Finally, once I feel satisfied with photographing something enough, I move on. I think this is why I like portraits, because people are always changing whether they like it or not.
KALTBLUT: How is photography affecting your life?
Arthur: I think photography is affecting my life in a positive way. It is an excuse I find myself using to go exploring –whether it’s going to a part of the city that I have never been to, or asking friends to remove their shirts and allow me to photograph their backs. Through such photographically-lead explorations, I feel like my appreciation of light, skin, and color has grown a lot. Before I really started getting into photography, I don’t think I ever took the time to contemplate light or shadow. That being said, photography has also had a big effect on me socially. It is something that I can share with my friends. I can ask them to sit for me, see their reactions, hear their perspectives and critiques etc. For me, these reactions are probably the most interesting outcome of my photos.
KALTBLUT: What do you like to capture with your camera?
Arthur: I like to capture people acting candidly, even if they are sitting for a photo that I have asked them to sit for. Taking a photo of something seemingly unreal, like an abandoned theme park in Beijing, is also something that I strive for. Photos that tell stories are always something I like to capture. But, sometimes I just want to take a photo simply for the light or memory of it.
KALTBLUT: Your pictures are usually full of colours, why is that? What do colours mean to you?
Arthur: I’m not sure what color means to me exactly, but I know colors are unique to each photo, and I think capturing this is important. Color is what I notice first, light comes second. Even though I like bright or highly contrastive colors, I also find myself drawn to softer, understated, milkier colors. I almost never do any sort of post-production work on my photos, so I need to make sure that the color in my photos will match those of the shot that I have envisioned in my head. I know a good color when I see one.
Interview by Emma E. K. Jones
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