Today we’d like to introduce you to Aaron Mahlon Thomas.
Aaron, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
As a 10th grade high school dropout for 45 years, I survived as self-taught computer support entrepreneur. In 2009, the condition known as PTSD reared its ugly head in my life and my company and family were negatively affected and begin to unravel. I decided to retire from computer support and close my firm because the responsibilities had become too heavy for me to manage with the condition of PTSD getting worse due to lack of treatment. I was trying to help my brother who also suffers with PTSD when I discovered by reading about his symptoms that, I had a lot in common with the symptoms that I was researching for his sake. I determined that I would be evaluated by a psychologist. To my surprise, I was diagnosed with PTSD. That is when it all started, this new revelation lead me to a vocational rehabilitation program through the Veterans Administration and it allowed me to go back to school.
I received my Bachelor’s of Fine Art from Texas A&M Commerce University in 2016, having graduated with a GPA of 3.62. I am a member of Texas Photographic Society, Dallas Museum of Art and the Center of Fine Art of Photography. Additionally, I am a member PHI Theta Kappa Honor Society and a member of the National Society of Leadership and Success. I have participated in several photography contest, winning best in show in 2011 Richland College, as well as being published as finalist in Serbin Communications Student Photography Contest three times, and receiving two Honorable Mentions.
I developed an interest in Fine Art and Photography early in life, having traveled to thirty countries while serving as an Electricians Mate on board the U.S.S John F. Kennedy during my six years in the US Navy from 1975 – 1981. I learned a great deal about fine art in my global travel experience and I began practicing photography during my tour of duty served in the navy. This experience carried over in to a small landscape and portrait business in the early eighties. Then having a strong technical background, I established a computer support firm which I retired from in 2009, the year I enrolled in my first photography class at Richland College.
Before I enrolled in the university, I participated in Richland and North Lake College with the intentions of gaining skills, so I could try entrepreneurship as a photographer or video creator. I studied Computer Graphics Design and Animation, Video and Film production, editing and color theory with a host of other photographically based artistic disciplines. I have also achieved a Minor in Radio and Television with my B.F.A. This program allowed me to study different subjects strengthening my training in Radio and Television Broadcasting. I enjoyed the radio performances, on camera performances, stage building and set lighting aspects of the training, as well as, audio editing and engineering and directing. I studied script writing for photographic and video storytelling and radio voice over performances.
In addition to my demonstrated skills in photography and computer technology, I also spent two years as an undergraduate researcher during my time as an intern at Richland college. As an intern, I shared and demonstrated digital imaging techniques. In addition to the photographic critique process, I also introduced the students to the photography masters and pioneers of our past who proceed us in this creative industry.
Additionally, I did the research and developed the skills and techniques necessary to produce master class Fine art Giclée prints, for the purpose of making art and to evangelize and resurrect the dying art of printing to the next generation of photographers.
My goal is to develop strategies to produce and deliver through a nonprofit venue. This venue will be a fine art gallery and studio, to support upcoming photography students, especially those with service-connected disable veteran status.
It is my mission to share, teach and give back to our community and our veterans from which I have received so much. And to co-define the acronym PTSD to mean “Photographically Touch the Soul Deeper” as to decrease the stigma given this condition by negative media representation. My intention is for my contribution to be greater than the reward, through this 501c3 nonprofit organization that I have established.
My hope and goal is to effect positive change and growth in the genre of photography as an artistic outlet for anyone who suffers with PTSD especially service-connected veterans and their families. Because I have personally experienced the positive impact of practicing the disciplines of the art of photography and study of the arts as a therapeutic safe haven from the mentality that haunts those effected with the condition of PTSD.
Given my education and experience, I am confident that this “Art As A Therapy Initiative” nonprofit will be an attribute and service to our communities disabled veterans and their families.
Has it been a smooth road?
It has not been easy, one of the struggles is to continue my training and working in the craft of photography/visual communications because of the value that the training brings to the mentality. It gives me comfort and helps me grow. Another struggle is to learn how to approach donors and get funding for the nonprofit. I have taken nonprofit classes at Richland College and gotten certified in running and operating a nonprofit. But, finding the donors requires marketing dollars and personnel support. But I will not give up, I am determined to see this through, it is my new calling in life.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
We are an IRS designated 501C3 tax-exempt organization. By veterans, for veterans. We need funding for a location and to develop and implement programs to help our fellow veterans.
Our Mission: To improve the quality of life of veterans and their families who live with the consequences of PTSD by guiding them through the process of discovering their artistic expression.
Our Vision: An interdependent organization for veterans and their families that use art as a therapeutic method to develop alternative coping skills, restore relationships and cultivate self-sustainability.
Our Core Values: Interdependence through Camaraderie, and Trustworthy Fellowship. Cultivating Friendliness, Honesty, Accountability, Transparency and Uprightness.
Within the context of photography, we are framing our fellow veterans with improved coping skills by sharing. As photographers/artist, we must compose, focus, capture and produce a higher level of mindfulness through photographic principles and practices. This develops strong disciplines through fellowship, decreasing the negative impact of PTSD through our art as a therapy initiative to produce positive results that empower our fellow veterans with a thorough set of coping skills as tools to help them communicate with their loved ones on several in-depth meaningful levels.
“If you take this control; that we need so badly, because it is who we become as soldiers and first responders, focus that control like a light onto negative issues. I believe we can bring about positive results to veterans
and their families that are interested in photography”. -Aaron Thomas
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that PTSD afflicts: almost 31 percent of Vietnam veterans. As many as 10 percent of Gulf War (Desert Storm) veterans. 11 percent of veterans of the war in Afghanistan.
An estimated 7.8 percent of Americans will experience PTSD at some point in their lives, with women (10.4%) twice as likely as men (5%) to develop PTSD. About 3.6 percent of U.S. adults aged 18 to 54 (5.2 million people) have PTSD during the course of a given year.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) says the nation’s homeless veterans are mostly males (four percent are females). The vast majority is single, most come from poor, disadvantaged communities, 45 percent suffer from mental illness and half have substance abuse problems.
As with most mental illnesses, no cure exists for PTSD but the symptoms can be effectively managed to restore the affected individual to normal functioning. The best hope for treating PTSD is a combination of medication and therapy.
Our city is ripe with a larger percentage of veterans who live with PTSD because of our population and job growth potential here in our great city. Not to mention here in Dallas, we have one of the largest and most efficient VA Medical centers in America.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://ptsd.photography (under construction)
- Phone: 214-458-0988
- Email: info@ptsd.photography
Image Credit:
Aaron Mahlon Thomas
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