Kyle
Thompson

Kyle Thompson

biography

Kyle Thompson was born in 1992 in Chicago, USA.

He currently resides in Portland, Oregon and has been represented by the VU Agency since 2013.

He began taking photographs at the age of nineteen after finding interest in exploring nearby abandoned homes.
His work is mostly composed of conceptual self portraits, often taking place in empty forests and abandoned homes.

It is in natural light and settings that Kyle Thompson stages out of the ordinary situations. Those are born straight out of his imagination and photographic experimentations, made possible thanks to new realms of digital creation.

Each image allows a variety of interpretations and readings: a quest for a new “rapport” with nature, an initiation journey where bodies are put to the test of the elements (water, air, earth, fire …), a questioning of ones identity through the variation of its representation.

The uncanny often vies with the disturbing, conveying the realm of childhood fairy tales, the teen’s “horror movies”, the serial killer or mystery TV series.
Kyle Thompson visual universe is immersed in this popular culture, from which he adapts the fictional codes to embody his own obsessions.

Series

Sinking Ship, 2019

Series | In "Sinking Ship" Kyle Thompson explores a locational muse- a now abandoned town in the American grasslands

Open Stage, 2018

Series | “While living in urban environments, I find myself searching out small pockets of nature within the city to create my work”

Single images, 2017

Series | Kyle Thompson's work is mostly composed of self portraits, often taking place in empty forests and abandoned homes.

Ghost Town, 2015

Série | "Ghost Town" creates a series of lonely manufactured landscapes taking place in a fabricated flooded town.  The series relates to my childhood depression, by creating an endless suffocating landscape that swallows its surroundings.

Somewhere else, 2014

A visual travel memoir of conceptual photos documenting the emotional strain and release of living in the unfamiliar. Shot in a six month span while living out of a car and wandering around the United States.

Sinking Ship, 2019

Series | In "Sinking Ship" Kyle Thompson explores a locational muse- a now abandoned town in the American grasslands

Open Stage, 2018

Series | “While living in urban environments, I find myself searching out small pockets of nature within the city to create my work”

Single images, 2017

Series | Kyle Thompson's work is mostly composed of self portraits, often taking place in empty forests and abandoned homes.

Ghost Town, 2015

Série | "Ghost Town" creates a series of lonely manufactured landscapes taking place in a fabricated flooded town.  The series relates to my childhood depression, by creating an endless suffocating landscape that swallows its surroundings.

Somewhere else, 2014

A visual travel memoir of conceptual photos documenting the emotional strain and release of living in the unfamiliar. Shot in a six month span while living out of a car and wandering around the United States.

Sinking Ship, 2019

Series | In "Sinking Ship" Kyle Thompson explores a locational muse- a now abandoned town in the American grasslands

Open Stage, 2018

Series | “While living in urban environments, I find myself searching out small pockets of nature within the city to create my work”

Single images, 2017

Series | Kyle Thompson's work is mostly composed of self portraits, often taking place in empty forests and abandoned homes.

Ghost Town, 2015

Série | "Ghost Town" creates a series of lonely manufactured landscapes taking place in a fabricated flooded town.  The series relates to my childhood depression, by creating an endless suffocating landscape that swallows its surroundings.

Somewhere else, 2014

A visual travel memoir of conceptual photos documenting the emotional strain and release of living in the unfamiliar. Shot in a six month span while living out of a car and wandering around the United States.

Interviews

Haunting Imaginary
Metal
—
Interview by Laura Cabiscol, 2016

“Kyle Thompson’s photography has, from the very beginning, denoted a very personal, concise and skilled vision for such a young artist. Drawing inspiration from his own emotions, his haunting images transport viewers to personal moments, surreal instants captured with his lens and transformed into a fleeting yet immutable instant. His photography translates abstract feelings into more physical ones, grasping images by mixing fantasy and reality. A lot of his oneiric images portray the inherent beauty in emptiness, and play with concepts like loneliness and self-destruction.»

Read

Kyle Thompson Discusses His Haunting Photography
Hi Fructose
—
Interview by Nathan Spoor, 2014

“Kyle Thompson is a young photographer on the rise. He began shooting at age 19 in his hometown of Chicago, Illinois, and in the last couple years has amassed a substantial body of work that shows a surprisingly adept and concise voice for such a young artist…. »

Read

The Surreal and the Self, Trailer
Jon Sams
—
2014

With no formal education in photography, Kyle Thompson began taking photographs at the age of nineteen. Now, at twenty-one, he’s known worldwide for his surreal self portraits, which often take place in empty forests and abandoned homes. He has been featured as an artist by Yahoo, appeared in Vogue Italia and had his work shown in galleries in Paris, France and Hamburg, Germany. This documentary observes his style, method and motivations behind the creation of his captivating images.

books

Shinking Ship

2019

Shinking Ship

2019

Shinking Ship

2019