Edward Thompson
United Kingdom
Biography
Edward Thompson (B. 1980, Wales) is a British documentary photographer. His photographic work has focused on various subjects over the years covering environmental issues, socio-political movements, subcultures, everyday life and the consequences of war.
He had a life changing experience with an early apprenticeship with the Russian photographer Sergey Chilikov, whom he met at the Arles Photography Festival in 2001. That summer Ed stayed with Sergey in Paris and learnt the value of shooting everyday life, eating fried fat and drinking red wine. Sergeys friend Gueorgui Pinkhassov told him how photographing the everyday can allow you to touch at something great. And it did.
His documentary photo-essays have been published in international magazines including National Geographic Magazine, The Guardian Weekend Magazine, BBC, CNN and The Sunday Times Magazine. He’s spoken regularly about photography on television, radio and online, including on Al Jazeera News and the BBC World Service.
In 2023 he published the photography book When In The Lone Star State. In 2022 he published In-A-Gadda-Da-England. In 2016 he published The Unseen: An Atlas of Infrared Plates with Schilt Publishing. In 2012 he self-published Occupy London. You can see these photo books in the collections and archives of the National Art Library in the V&A Museum, The Bishopsgate Institute, The Museum of London, The Amon Carter Museum of American Art.
Project
“When In the Lone Star State” by Edward Thompson is a long-term documentary photography project and photobook that reflects the British photographer’s deep engagement with Texas Hill Country — its landscapes, people and cultural rhythms as seen in the early 2000s during the George W. Bush era. Shot entirely on medium-format film, it was Thompson’s first major long-form photo essay and later self-published as a photobook following a successful crowdfunding campaign.
The series combines portraits, rural scenes and visual texture rooted in the American South — a region that struck Thompson with its cinematic familiarity and complex mixture of tradition, patriotism and everyday life. His images capture both the familiar mythologies and lived realities of Texas culture, offering a personal yet resonant portrayal of place. When In the Lone Star State stands as both a reflection on rural America and Thompson’s own connection to its visual language, marked by timeless compositions and evocative encounters along the Hill Country.
