Portrait of a Photographer – TJ Thorne

Healing his soul through the craft of nature photography

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By Matt Payne | July 20, 2020

Matt Payne

Matt Payne is a landscape photographer and mountain climber from Durango, Colorado. He’s the host of the weekly landscape photography podcast, “F-Stop Collaborate and Listen,” co-founder of the Nature First Photography Alliance, and co-founder of the Natural Landscape Photography Awards. He lives with his wife, Angela, his son Quinn, and his four cats, Juju, Chara, Arrow, and Vestal.

mattpaynephotography.com

For the second iteration of this column, I really wanted to feature the work of TJ Thorne, a landscape photographer living in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. I admire TJ’s photography for its uniqueness and for the ways in which it subtly conveys emotional connection. I was first introduced to TJ’s work when I relocated to Portland, Oregon and was looking for inspiration in this new (to me) world filled with lush green rainforests, raging waterfalls, deserts, mountains, and diverse coastal regions. When I stumbled upon TJ’s photography, I was immediately struck by how unique it was as compared with the typical work featured of the Pacific Northwest. I knew there must be a deeper meaning or connection between TJ and his subjects, and I really wanted to explore that in depth – so I was thrilled when he joined me for a conversation on my podcast.

What I learned about TJ through that conversation and by studying his artwork is that he regularly uses photography as therapy and as a means of processing, dealing with, and overcoming life’s arduous challenges.

TJ’s life has indeed been one filled with such challenges – he has struggled with anxiety and depression, he has struggled with alcoholism, and has worked gruelling hours as a chef and cook in the restaurant and food service industry. As a trained psychotherapist, I find TJ’s connection with, and use of photography in nature to be a fascinating, persuasive, and wonderful story and study. In TJ’s own words, photography and nature saved his life.

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