Tomas Van Houtryve
VII Photo
Paris, France
Tomas van Houtryve is a documentary photographer and conceptual artist whose major works interweave investigative journalism, philosophy and metaphor. Van Houtryve makes images using a wide range of processes, from analogue photography to thermal imaging. His projects challenge our notions of identity, memory and the relationship between the individual and the State.
A selection of van Houtryve's awards include the CatchLight / Pulitzer Fellowship (2017), ICP Infinity Award (2015), World Press Photo, Second Prize (2015), Aaron Siskind Fellowship (2014), Finalist Leica Oskar Barnack Prize (2011), POY Photographer of the Year (2010), Bayeux Prize for War Correspondents (2006), Visa pour l'Image Young Photographer Award (2006).
Van Houtryve's works are included in the permanent collections of New York’s International Center of Photography Museum, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Photography.
In 2014, van Houtryve's groundbreaking Blue Sky Days series was published in Harper’s as the largest photo portfolio in the magazine’s 164-year history. James Estrin of the New York Times stated that "Blue Sky Days is one of the most important photo essays done in the last few years. It tackles issues that are very difficult to photograph but central to modern existence—privacy, government intrusion and modern antiseptic warfare."
Van Houtryve's first monograph book, Behind the Curtains of 21st Century Communism, was published in 2012. The seven-year photographic project documents life in the last countries where the Communist Party remains in power: North Korea, Cuba, China, Nepal, Vietnam, and Laos.
His latest project, Lines and Lineage, explores the original Mexico-U.S. border and questions what is missing from the visual history of the Far West. The monograph will be published by Radius Books.
Van Houtryve is based in Paris, France. Since 2010, he is a member of VII, the international photographer collective.
2015 - ICP Infinity Award, 2015 - World Press Photo, Second Prize, 2012 - POY World Understanding Award, 2010 - POY Photographer of the Year, 2018 - CatchLight / Pulitzer Fellow, 2017 - 2017 Hasselblad Foundation R&D Award
- Arts
- Corporate
- Crisis
- Editorial
- Environment
- Interview
- Landscape
- Medical
- RC aerial
- Reporting
- RISC training
- Video capture
- English
- Spanish
- French
- Nepali
