Thomas Pirot

022 PH • Tel Aviv, Israel

AK: Please introduce yourself: What is your name, where are you from, what do you do?

TP: My Name is Thomas Pirot. I was born in Mainz, Germany and I somehow ended up right here again for now. I’m a photographer.

AK: What is your relationship with photography? How did you get into it and what keeps you interested or motivated?

TP: My brother gave me his film SLR for my first trip to Israel when I was 16 years old. That was the first time I consciously chose angles and focal lengths I think. At that time the Second Intifada was very present on our TV screens as well as what I remember of the 2003 invasion of Iraq and that’s exactly where I drew my inspiration from: images of war.

My first visit to Israel and the occupied territories and the pictures I took there were most probably what gave me a first, superficial idea of what I wanted do do a few years into the future. Over time I went from wide angle lenses and a journalistic, sometimes sensationalistic approach to a more distanced, calmer stance using medium format cameras and a tripod trying to separate myself from what I wanted to capture. That’s basically what i did when I concluded my studies with a final project on the influence of ‘the situation’ on the Israeli landscape.

AK: What are you currently working on, and—if there is—what is your next project or journey?

TP: Photography takes me to places and confronts me with people and situations I probably wouldn’t ever have the pleasure to deal with. The urban spheres we live in are something that never seems to cease motivating me to go out there with a camera – though my biggest interest lies, ultimately, in humans.

That’s why I chose to finally make the plunge into portrait photography in January 2017. I’m still baffled by the fact that I’m able to make a living by working as a photographer and I can hardly express how much I appreciate this. Besides that I'm putting every vacant minute into a documentary film project that deals with male sexuality. 

AK: Thank you, Thomas!

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Photography: Thomas Pirot (2018)
Location: Tel Aviv, Israel

Links: Website, Instagram, Vimeo