Thomas John Shillea is a visual artist and academic. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Arts Education from Kutztown University and MFA degree in Photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology. He has been the Director of Art Programs at NCC since 1999. He has teaching experience at all academic levels, from the public school system through college and university programs at the graduate level including as a professor in the Applied Photography Program at the Rochester Institute of Technology and has conducted a series of lectures and workshops on the 19th century photography platinotype process throughout the country and in China.

 

In 1985 and 1986 Shillea worked with the United States Information Agency in Washington, D.C., on a project entitled Gallery of Famous Americans, during which he photographed President Ronald Reagan, civil rights leader Coretta Scott King, Academy Award–winning actor Sissy Spacek, and American publisher Malcolm Forbes. He has photographed other celebrities, including legendary golfer Arnold Palmer, Indianapolis 500 winner Mario Andretti, U.S. Olympic cycling medalist Davis Phinney, and adventurer Thor Heyerdahl. A collection of some of these photographs now resides in the Smithsonian Museum’s National Portrait Gallery. His photographs are also in the collections of major art museums and universities such as the George Eastman Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Rochester Institute of Technology, the James A. Michener Art Museum. He has presented his photographs in numerous museum, university, and gallery exhibitions.

For more than five decades of experimental photography, his studio practice has explored interdisciplinary fields that focus on the complex interaction of identity markers that include gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, aesthetics, and other constructs. He employs seemingly dichotomous tools spanning the 19th to 21st centuries, ranging from classical modalities— namely, his 100-year-old 8” × 10” view camera and contact printing sheet film negatives onto paper hand-coated with noble metal of platinum— to modern techniques such as camera-less long-exposure captures utilizing an oversized flatbed scanner and outputting large-scale conceptual color works.

Prior to the ubiquity in today’s electronic image- making and predating Adobe Photoshop by more than a decade, Shillea in the early aughts was navigating an unprecedented era in his medium. Experimenting with digital photography since its inception by having the opportunity to use some of the first iterations of digital cameras initially developed by Kodak while a graduate student and subsequently professor in the applied photography program at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Today Shillea continues to investigate novel ways to express his vision. He intrepidly incorporates traditional and nontraditional, vintage and modern work, with cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence. Many of his photographs are unique compositions as he uses emulsion as paint, draws on prints with pencil or pigment, and creates collages with gold leaf or even other photographs. His undergraduate background as a painter, illustrator, and fine craft artist is evident. The thread that unifies the artist’s oeuvre is his deep understanding and adherence to the principles established throughout art history.

In 2017, 2018, and 2019 he made three visits to Asia as a representative of Northampton Community College: to Japan to assist NCC students study the culture and art of ukiyo-e prints and Kabuki Theater, and to Shanghai Dianji University in China to present a lecture and printing demonstration of the platinum printing process.

Most recently, the international exhibition of Shillea’s work and launch of his latest book, Thomas Shillea, L’Exposition—Classical to Experimental Photographs took place at the world’s largest art fair dedicated to the photographic medium, Paris Photo, hosted at the Grand Palais Éphémère in Paris, France, in November of 2023. In April 2024 the US launch and accompanying exhibit was held at The Photography Show presented by the Association of International Art Dealers at the Park Avenue Armory, NY, NY. He has exhibited his photographs in this same venue/exhibit in 2025.

A film biography of the life and work of Thomas Shillea, Upside Down and Backwards is currently in post-production. Due Santi Publishing, INC., is set to publish a comprehensive monograph of Shillea’s work, with the same title.

He is represented by Santa Bannon Fine Art Gallery in Easton, PA and Alex Novak, Vintage Works/Contemporary Works in Chalfont, PA.

Visit ThomasShilleaPhotography.com to learn more.