Thomas Prior’s Uncanny Vision of Modern Life

A single photograph has a remarkable capacity to convey and contain meaning. And when another image is displayed alongside the first, something extraordinary happens to both pictures. Moving through the meticulously sequenced selection of 84 photographs (chosen from an initial edit of 9,500) in Thomas Prior’s new monograph, Slip Me the Master Key, we are drawn into an epic survey of technology, environment, capitalism and culture in which narratives and ideas emerge as each image augments, undermines, or crucially complicates our understanding of the modern world.

Bringing together pictures from two decades of commercial and personal work, the book is guided by the American photographer’s pervading interest in “the folly of man and how even our most beautiful actions are flawed and self-destructive”. The result is gorgeous yet unsettling, permeated by a sense of dissonance, humour and an eye for the uncanny. What might give the impression of being far-ranging and disparate is actually an exacting investigation of the Anthropocene – a term coined to describe an epoch in which human activity has become a planetary force of change. “This work is a small edit from an extensive archive, but in funnelling so many different subjects and themes into a concise narrative, I’ve maybe got as close as I can to sharing the definition and intent of my work,” he says.

The subject matter pivots around the human capacity to make wondrous things while also being the means of creating desolation. “The work is framed around an exploration of my conflicting views on humanity – the actions we enact on each other and the consequences on the planet,” Prior explains. “However, this is juxtaposed with a reverence for the beauty that we are capable of creating.”

With his dissecting eye, Prior examines the slippage between progress and decay. Slip Me the Master Key is a carousel of immaculate compositions ranging from junkyards crammed with human detritus to abandoned vehicles in scenes of outstanding natural beauty, fires raging and smoke billowing from the penthouse of a casino hotel, the demolition of monumental buildings, human figures silhouetted against the febrile chaos of exploding fireworks, the usually unseen disorder behind the newsreader’s desk, and much more. 

The creeping sense of dystopian foreboding that pervades his pictures is always offset by beauty and, with that beauty, a little chink of light. “The subject matter I’m drawn to and my overall perspective have changed very little over the years,” Prior continues. “This has been influenced by and entwined with my anxiety, fears, and obsessive compulsions, which have been at the foundation of my practice, dictating a perspective that is somewhat dark at times, but is also diffused with a sensitivity that invests a certain hope within the frame – a duality that exists in much of the work I create.”

After eluding him for a long time, the book’s enigmatic title came to him spontaneously as he crossed the street one morning. It’s taken from Bob Dylan’s song, Up To Me, and Prior immediately felt it to be the perfect “rallying social plea”. He tells us, “It’s referencing an ambling and relentless quest to find meaning, although possibly not being comfortable with that quest or understanding what that meaning might be.” The book’s greenscreen-style cover alludes to this idea – “a portal mirroring that which is beautiful and meaningful, but that may also be hollow and damned.” 

Alongside investigating the current moment, Prior’s work often seems to possess a prophetic quality. Slip Me the Master Key feels loaded with revelations and insight, like the totemic symbols on a deck of tarot. Yet Prior himself attempts to keep a distance from current events (lest he “spiral into an agonising darkness”), let alone dwell too heavily on predictions for our doomed future. “My outlook is short and urgent,” he concludes. “Longer term, I think we’re completely fucked.”

Slip Me the Master Key by Thomas Prior is published by Loose Joints and is out now.