Please note: this exhibition is online only.
This is a collection of snapshots I took during those in-between moments here and there. I was either on a photo assignment, observing, researching, attending events, celebrating with friends, traveling, or meandering. The photographs show samples of a secretive air force base in California (the original story was published in Forbes about the U-2 Spy Planes), moments in Montana, gardens in Portugal, a local marine research lab, a women’s powder room at a wedding, someone’s living room, swans in London, marching bands gathering after a Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, and a crowd circling breakdancers in Central Park.
Mai La Thai is an artist, designer, photographer, filmmaker, and creative director based in Hudson Square and the West Village. She escaped the Vietnam war with her family as a toddler and grew up in Ohio. Mai studied fine art at a magnet art high school and was a pre-college scholar at the Cleveland Institute of Art.
In 2000, she graduated with a BFA from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco in Advertising Art Direction and Design. Mai worked with the graphics and industrial design teams at Pentagram Design and as an art director at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners while obtaining her college degree. In 2001, BBDO brought her to NY to work on television and print campaigns for clients such as FedEx, Mountain Dew, and other global brands. She continued to work in the industry at various organizations thereafter.
As a teenager, Mai answered a classified ad in the newspaper and was commissioned to shoot a project for her first client, a local business. This would require her to sneak into the school’s darkroom to develop gelatin silver prints between classes, present them to her client after school, and then have them ready for publication.
Today’s access and ease into digital imaging and processing allow her to return to her love of capturing still and moving images. She started to focus on this medium and launched her photography website for the first time in 2019 to critical acclaim in the prestigious 2019 PDN Photo Annual. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in galleries and museums.
Visit MaiLaThai.com to see more and contact the artist for prints, commissions, or inquiries.
Copyright © Mai La Thai 2022
