Alastair Thain (born 1961) is a German-born photographer. His portraits were published in 1991 as ''Skin Deep'', and many are held in the collection of the

National Portrait Gallery, London The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London housing a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. It was arguably the first national public gallery dedicated to portraits in the world when it ...

. With

Tom Stoddart Thomas Stoddart (28 November 1953 – 17 November 2021) was a British photojournalist. He covered the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Lebanese Civil War, the siege of Sarajevo and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Life and career Stoddart was born in ...

, he made work about the

Siege of Sarajevo The Siege of Sarajevo ( sh, Opsada Sarajeva) was a prolonged blockade of Sarajevo, the capital of Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, during the Bosnian War. After it was initially besieged by the forces of the Yugoslav ...

, which was exhibited at the

Royal Festival Hall The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a Grade I l ...

in London and published as a book.

Early life and education

Thain was born in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...

, Germany and studied at the

London College of Printing The London College of Communication is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London. It specialises in media-related subjects including advertising, animation, film, graphic design, photography and sound arts. It has approximately ...

Publications

*''Skin Deep: The Portraits of Alastair Thain''. Viking, 1991. . With an essay by Jane Withers. *''Edge of Madness: Sarajevo, a city and its people under siege''. London: Royal Festival Hall, 1997. With

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions or with one other person

*''Edge of Madness – Sarajevo a City and Its People Under Siege'',

, London, 1997. With Tom Stoddart. *''Marines: Portraits by Alastair Thain'', externally,

Imperial War Museum North Imperial War Museum North (sometimes referred to as IWM North) is a museum in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford in Greater Manchester, England. One of five branches of the Imperial War Museum, it explores the impact of modern conflicts on pe ...

, Manchester, 2009

Group exhibitions

*''How We Are: Photographing Britain,''

Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...

, London, 2007. Co-curated by Susan Bright and

Val Williams Val Williams is a British curator and author who has become an authority on British photography. She is the Professor of the History and Culture of Photography at the London College of Communication, part of the University of the Arts London, and ...

Collections

Thain's work is held in the following permanent collection: *

: 23 portrait prints (as of 30 November 2021)

References

21st-century photographers 20th-century photographers People from Düsseldorf Alumni of the London College of Printing Living people 1961 births Portrait photographers {{Photographer-stub