Participating Artists

Ashton Thornhill

Biography / Artist Statement

ASHTON THORNHILL is a photographer working on the Llano Estacado of Texas and the northern desert of New Mexico. Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, he grew up in Washington D.C, and now lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

In 1979 Ashton joined the faculty at Texas Tech University, there he taught photography for the next twenty-nine years.

His photographic interest primarily lays in the distinctive environs of the Southwest. He had workshops with Ansel Adams, Kate Breakey, Keith Carter, Annie Leibovitz, and W. Eugene Smith, among others.

Grounded as a black and white, silver gelatin photographer, Thornhill reluctantly embraced digital tools more than two decades ago. Ashton now makes his photographs digitally and prints with the best pigment inks and most stable papers available.

His photographs have won numerous awards in national exhibits and are in the permanent collections of the Grace Museum – Abilene, TX, The Strathmore Mansion in Bethesda, MD, the Harry Ranson Center at the University of Texas – Austin, the Lea County Museum in Lovington, NM and the Southwest Collection: Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas.

He is represented in Lubbock by the Charles Adams Gallery.