BIO
Thouly Dosios holds a B.A. in Visual Studies from Harvard University. There, she studied photography under Chris Killip and also interned with Magnum photographer Susan Meiselas. She has since continued her studies participating in photography workshops with Mary Ellen Mark, Sam Abell, Julia Dean and Constantine Manos. Thouly has photographed in the streets of Istanbul, Rome, Tokyo, Beijing, New Delhi, Varanasi and Oaxaca, among others. For the last seven years she has focused on documenting daily life in the streets of Los Angeles, and since 2014 has been a member of the Los Angeles Center of Photography (LACP). Her work has been showcased in group shows at the Umbrella Arts Gallery in New York, the dnj Gallery and The Perfect Exposure Gallery in Los Angeles, the Praxis Gallery in Minneapolis, the Black Box Gallery in Portland, and the PH21 Gallery in Budapest.
Thouly also holds an M.F.A. in Film Directing from UCLA. Her short films have screened in numerous film festivals worldwide receiving distinctions, including a nomination for a Student Academy Award®. She is currently completing the documentary short, The Rituals of Waiting, about the aspirations of women refugees living in refugee camps on the Greek island of Lesvos.
Thouly grew up in Athens, Greece, and currently lives in Los Angeles.
STATEMENT
In photography I discovered from early on an entryway to places I did not belong. In the foreign, I look for the familiar. I find comfort in the minute but pivotal ways that connect us all. And I strive for connection. It can be a brief meeting of the eyes, or a long conversation. But even if there is no overt interaction, just the mere act of making a picture may bring on an eternal and precious bond with a complete stranger. I find this to be quite magical.
Walking the streets with my camera is when I am most present in the world and receptive to its innuendoes. The task at hand is almost impossible: to capture a fleeting moment of daily life that would be utterly inconsequential were it not for the fact that it carries within it something vital about our humanity.
I have been photographing the streets of Los Angeles, my adopted home, for the last seven years. It’s a place I deeply love and respect, and one which constantly fascinates and challenges me. I’m taken by the city’s openness; the co-existence of a multitude of cultures that both triumphantly stand out and effortlessly mesh with each other; the unspoken promise that everything is possible. I’m fascinated by the extreme juxtapositions of a pulsating world nestled between wild tumultuous waters and the eerie stillness of the desert; ancient old traditions celebrated as pioneering thoughts take flight, immense wealth straddling along devastating poverty, a tireless merry-go-round of death and re-birth of dreams and identities. At the same time, I’m acutely aware of the cloud of loneliness that hangs over the sunny skies. Impermanence looms everywhere. I’ve come to know well that, at any moment, my favorite street-corner may go up in smoke and that, overnight, a beloved face may vanish.