Cat Thomson

Cat Thomson is an Edinburgh based photographer who graduated from Edinburgh College with a BA in Professional Photography in 2016.

Driven by a curiosity in the nuances of human behaviour; people and portraiture have become a central theme of her practice, with past personal work focusing on the limitations of the photographic portrait.

Her love for photography comes from the power to convey feelings, opinions and ideas visually, a mechanism for exploring the world. Other personal projects have taken her as far afield as the Faroe Islands, where she planned to photograph jaw dropping landscapes but found herself drawn to habitual details of daily life instead.

And as close by as her own kitchen for a range of still life images produced during lockdown 2020 using only objects found within her home, where we are struck by the beauty of everyday life.

This image, from her work on the limitations of the photographic portrait, asks the viewer to consider the truth behind photographic portraiture. Are we able to convey the essence of a person through a photograph? Here, all of the information is there, yet we can’t rearrange the pieces in our minds to bring together this man’s face.

Since graduating she has worked to establish a freelance commercial photography business specialising in interiors and food and drink photography. She has had the pleasure of working editorial commissions like photographing First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, and a range of commercial clients including LVMH, William Grant & Sons, Bacardi, Brown Foreman and Loch Fyne.