Chip Thomas: The Good Fight

TEXT BY JUSTSEEDS ARTISTS’ COOPERATIVE & CHIP THOMAS
IP
HOMAS
going out and spending time with
people in their homes and family
camps, I have come to know them
as friends. Interestingly, these home
visits enhance my doctor/patient
relationship by helping me be a more
empathetic health care practitioner.
I’ve always been drawn to street art,
graffiti and old school hip-hop. I
was attracted to the energy of the
culture in the 80s and though I
was miles away from the epicenter,
I thought of myself as a charter
member of the Zulu Nation. I would
travel to New York City to see
graffiti on trains, on buildings and
in galleries. I did some tagging in
the 80s before coming to the Navajo
Nation and participated with a
major billboard “correction” on the
reservation shortly after my arrival.
My early interventions on the
street were largely text based saying
things like “Thank you Dr.
King. I too am a dreamer” or
“Smash Apartheid” and so on.
In 2009 I took a 3-month sabbatical
to Brasil which coincided with a
difficult period in my life. Though
I wasn’t looking for an epiphany,
I was fortunate to stumble upon a
passionate group of artists working
on the street who befriended me. It
was during this time that I appreciated
how photography could be a
street art form. Inspired by Diego
Rivera and Keith Haring, I’d become
disinterested in showing my photographs
isolated from the people I was
photographing and wanted to pursue
a more immediate relationship with
my community reflecting back to
them some of the beauty they’ve
shared with me. And in truth, I
was infatuated with the feeling I got
being with the artists in Salvador
do Bahia and wanting to find a way
to keep that vibe going I started
pasting images along the roadside in June 2009.
I was blown away by Richards’ work in the late 80s
and early 90s for Life Magazine and had an opportunity
to spend 5 days picking his brain at Santa Fe
Photographic Workshops in 1991. It’s this one person
with one camera, frequently with only one lens
shooting black + white film in ambient light aesthetic
that informs my eye as well as 25 years spent in my
home darkroom pursing the zone system. It’s been
an interesting challenge attempting to bring that look
to black and white prints on regular bond paper coming
off a toner based plotter. I’d like to think that
my vision is a part of the storytelling, first person,
humanist tradition of the people I look up to mixed
with a healthy dose of Diego Rivera + Keith Haring.
Regardless, I give thanks that the journey continues.
In beauty it is finished.
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