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• Thomas John Shillea: The Nude

Rex in Blue

Thomas Shillea received a Master of Fine Arts degree in Photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

During his graduate studies at RIT from 1977-1980, he had an opportunity to learn museum practices in the Exhibition Department at the George Eastman Museum. It was this experience that introduced him to the platinum photographs of Alfred Stieglitz and the Photo-Session photographers. Shillea's professors, Charles Arnold and Owen Butler, were protégées of Minor White and followed in the tradition of Paul Caponigro, Paul Strand and Alfred Stieglitz in their photographic aesthetic. Shillea carries on that classic tradition in his work today. As part of his graduate thesis Shillea co-authored, with John Hafey, the History of the Platinotype, published in 1979, by the Graphics Arts Research Center at R.I.T.

His photographs are in the collections of major art museums and universities such as the George Eastman Museum, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The National Museum of African American History and Culture, The National Portrait Gallery, the Baltimore Museum of Art, The Rochester Institute of Technology, The James A. Michener Museum of Art, The Johnson-Matthey Collection (London) and Lehigh University, to name a few. He has presented his photographs in numerous museum, university and art gallery exhibitions.

Shillea was a professor in the Applied Photography Program at RIT and has conducted a series of lectures and workshops on the Platinotype process throughout the country, a complete list is available on his website. Today, he continues his work as a fine art photographer, and an educator, as the Director of Art Programs at Northampton Community College, in Bethlehem, PA.

Recently, he made two visits to Japan to study the culture and art of Ukiyo-e prints and Kabuki Theater,  and presented a lecture and printing demonstration of the Platinum Printing Process at Dianji University in Shanghai, China.