Jo Thomson

Jo is a photographer, an artist, a workshop facilitator and a design studio director. After completing a general Art Foundation course at Exeter College, Jo specialised in photography and gained a BA from the London College of Arts (LCA), UK.

Jo has worked for many years as a commercial photographer and for the past 15 years has worked alongside her husband in their design and brand studio 'Believe in'.

Having recently found the opportunity to rediscover her love of manual processes and analogue photography Jo has been creating original art prints under the brand name Florigin.

Jo recently showed her work in successful solo shows at the Museum of Dufferin & Shelburne Town Hall Art Gallery, in Dufferin County.

Jo lives and works in a forested property in Mono, an hour North of Toronto with her husband and two teenage sons.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

Jo Thomson is an experimental photo artist working with cameraless techniques and analogue photographic materials. The artists works are created using a direct contact method between the organic materials and the light sensitive materials, technically described as photograms. By removing the camera from the process, the objects are recorded at their true scale and form.

'the direct contact between the organic object and the print media eliminates any human interpretation and very simply records in 2D the true scale, shape and form of the organic mater. The darkroom created photograms focus on detail and form and the sun exposed cyanotypes produce a softer approach, with more translucency in the resulting print.'

Jo's unique approach to capturing the beauty of foraged botanicals through the use of traditional photographic processes, aims to record and elevate ordinary objects into things of beauty, creating a sense of calm and focus. As there is no camera or film negative, each print is unique and cannot be exactly reproduced.

'Be brave, experiment & explore, gather your inspiration, immerse yourself in nature, don't hold back'