[brandonthibodeaux]

HOUSTON CENTER FOR PHOTOGRAPHY

I was thrilled to support HCP in their annual print sale fundraiser. This year I donated a print of Sno Balls & Ice Cream, an images from my book, In That Land of Perfect Day. A print of this same image is held in the collection at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans.

HCP is an indispensable part of the Houston photography community providing local exposure to world class exhibitions, fellowships and funding to well-deserving artists and year round educational opportunities to aspiring photographers at all levels.

I've enjoyed playing a small part in its mission with the workshops I've taught with them over the years and congratulate them on another successful fundraising initiative in 2024 reportedly earning over $270,000!!

Here's to another year of growth and inspiration!

[brandonthibodeaux]

THE NEW YORK TIMES

Some of my favorite commissions are industry and environment pieces. I closed out 2023 with a trip up to southern Utah for the NYT to have a look at geothermal drilling - a small but growing effort to diversify our energy production across the country.

One of my absolute favorite commissions is when I can cover industry and environment back where I grew up in southeast Texas / southwest Louisiana, and in December the NYT sent me to cover the possible expansion of a natural gas export facility in Cameron, LA. The story looked at the affect the facility is having in the tiny city of Cameron while touching on President Biden's dilemma of balancing global energy demands with the desires of his political base.

[brandonthibodeaux]

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

Earlier this spring I had the pleasure of collaborating with National Geographic and Travel Texas on an advertising campaign promoting Texas tourism.

I shadowed NY photographer Dina Litovsky as she walked the streets of Fort Worth's Historic Stockyards capturing the highlights of the city's thriving cowboy culture.

You can read the article and view the promotional video here.

[brandonthibodeaux]

THE ATLANTIC

I had the pleasure of kicking off 2023 with a spread in The Atlantic. I photographed a portrait of investor Carson Block, a notoriously successful short seller based in Austin, TX.  The magazine’s Director of Photography, Louise Stauss, graciously asked for my collaboration with the article. They were looking for a black and white portrait in a moody film noir style to reflect the covert tactics and deep dive sleuthing an investment firm like Carson’s conducts. 

I’ve posted the image that went to print along with a few of my favorite selects. You can read the full article here.

[brandonthibodeaux]

HUFFINGTON POST

A story recently published with the Huffington Post “How Harris County, Texas, the execution capital of the country, sends poor people to death row. I photographed portraits of Obel Cruz-Garcia who was sentenced to death in 2013 for killing a six-year-old boy, a crime he maintains he did not commit. 

He was appointed a lawyer named Skip Cornelius, who failed to do basic defense work on the case and met his client only a handful of times outside of the courtroom. On almost every day of Cruz-Garcia’s death penalty trial, Cornelius billed multiple hours to other cases. Cruz-Garcia is now represented by excellent post-conviction lawyers who have done the research and investigation Cornelius should have done — showing how competent legal defense likely would have persuaded jurors to spare Cruz-Garcia’s life.

I also photographed renowned Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis who has spent decades fighting to improve the county’s indigent defense system.

You can read the full story here.

[brandonthibodeaux]

VIEWFINDER MAGAZINE

Thrilled to have an image of Choo Choo included in a recent Viewfinder feature. Click here for article.

“Hope” is the thing with feathers – That perches in the soul – And sings the tune without the words – And never stops – at all –

~Emily Dickinson (excerpt)

[brandonthibodeaux]

NEW YORK TIMES

Last month I was assigned to photograph portraits of two Texas mothers whom lost their sons to alleged negligence at the Harris County Jail. The article (read here) examines Houston’s jail, "where the population is at its highest in a decade, 24 people have died this year. More than half had a history of mental problems".

Dallas Garcia's son, Fred Harris, 19, who had special needs, was beaten to death by a fellow inmate when he chose the wrong intake line and was placed in general population instead of the medical unit.

Marianna Thomson lost her son, Matthew Shelton, when jail officials failed to administer the insulin he brought with him when he arrived to the facility.

This was an incredibly hard story and I'm grateful for the courage and openness these women showed me in their most vulnerable time.

[brandonthibodeaux]

WSJ

I photographed the new President of ExxonMobil's Low Carbon Solutions division, Dan Ammann, for The Wall Street Journal this past month. Exxon wanted something special from the standard corporate portrait so the WSJ commissioned me to shoot film with my trusty Mamiya C330. You can read the article here.

[brandonthibodeaux]

FLATS Presents: In Conversation with Aaron R. Turner

Sharing an interview I did with one of my favorite people (and photographers) Aaron R. Turner. The piece was published in the inaugural edition of a magazine produced by the Houston photo organization FLATS.

On top of teaching and managing his own artistic career, Aaron is also the founder of the Center for Photographers of Color (CPoC) at the University of Arkansas, and host of the CPoC podcast. 

We’ve traveled similar paths personally and professionally and, well, I couldn’t have been more excited to spend time corresponding with him. We cover all the big things, life, work, and how, when we’re lucky, we manage to survive both.

Coming in at nearly 5000 words, this piece is one of the most comprehensive interviews about my relationship with photography. The isolation of the pandemic and disorienting effect of 2020 led me down a long path of soul searching. This interview is the culmination of all that wandering - and wondering.

[brandonthibodeaux]

TEXAS MONTHLY

Earlier this year I photographer Raymond Poole who was injured while working at Custom Cut Lumber, a lumber mill owned by the Church of Wells, an East Texas fundamentalist religious group. 

At age 17, Poole was amongst a number of under age laborers employed by the mill. The story is about the lumber mill, the church, and the investigation into state and federal labor violations by its employing minors, some allegedly as young as 11 years old. Read the full story here.

[brandonthibodeaux]

Washington Post

I collaborated on a piece published this week in the Washington Post about LNG facilities along the Texas / Louisiana Gulf Coast.  With Europe’s energy markets reeling from the war in Ukraine, American LNG exporters - already in a state of expansion - are taking full advantage despite the cries of local residents vulnerable to pollution and climate change. Read the full article here.

[brandonthibodeaux]

FT WEEKEND MAGAZINE

I paired up with FT writer, Derek Brower, for the final leg of his tour across the oil and gas lands of west Texas to assess the current state of the drilling industry amidst a green energy boom. You can read the story here.

[brandonthibodeaux]

NY TIMES

New York Times reporter Clifford Krauss and I collaborated on a piece published in January about the job market for recently graduated petroleum engineering students. We featured several students across Texas as they search for internships and permanent positions in the turbulent industry. 

Click here to read the story.

[brandonthibodeaux]

Texas Monthly

Earlier in the year I worked with Texas Monthly to photograph Isabelle Laymance and her mother for a story about their recovery and healing as a family in the years following Isabelle’s experiencing a mass shooting at her Texas high school. You can read the story here.

[brandonthibodeaux]

NEW YORK TIMES

Galveston resident Deborah Dillard was twice laid off during the pandemic. I collaborated on an NYT story published recently depicting her struggle with employment.

[brandonthibodeaux]

NEW YORK TIMES

Communities of Color are being disproportionately affected by Covid and some of those most at risk reside dangerously close to the refineries and polluted waterways of southeast Texas. 

The New York Times covered the issue of air quality amid Covid in a recent story. I spent two evenings with regional environmental and community activists, Hilton Kelley, in my hometown of Port Arthur, TX, and Yvette Arellano, in the Latino communities along the Houston Ship Channel.

Read the full story here.

[brandonthibodeaux]

ROLLING STONE

I had the chance to spend an afternoon with Glenn Beck and his crew at Mercury Studios for Rolling Stone. The story looks at how the “one-time Tea Party darling” is taking on Trump.  Read the full story here.