Klaus Thymann

Klaus Thymann started working as a photographer at the age of fourteen photographing tourists in Copenhagen for the Canal Tour, after which he began working for various newspapers and publications during his teenage years. In 1996 he was the youngest ever winner of the Scandinavian Kodak Gold Award, numerous awards and honours have followed since.

In 1997 he co-founded a magazine, Virus, a biannual publication with in-depth features. Virus was the first magazine to uncover Echelon (the popular name to describe a signal intelligence system capable of interception and content inspection of telephone calls, fax, e-mail and other data traffic globally). The feature ultimately led to an investigation by a committee of the European Parliament with a report published in 2001.

Having established himself in Denmark as a creative force, Thymann began working with various international clients and publications and in 2000 he moved to London. Currently he is a contributor to publications such as i-D, New York Times, Wired and V. Thymann has photographed global advertising campaigns for Nike, Levi’s and Nokia amongst others. He has directed short films, music promos and exhibited moving image pieces. He has exhibited his work in numerous solo exhibitions and group shows at places like Institute of Contemporary Art, London; Museum Centro Arti Visive Pescheria, Italy; Torrance Art Museum, USA and Paul Smith’s Space Gallery, Tokyo. Thymann art work have been endorsed in form of grants from Danish Arts Council.

Coinciding with the release of his first book Hybrids, he had solo shows in New York, London and Copenhagen. Hybrids was produced over a period of four years when Thymann documented peculiar hybrid cultures around the planet, such as Snow Polo in St. Mortiz, Gay Rodeo in LA, Underwater Striptease in Chile, Underground Gardening in Tokyo. The limited edition book has introductory drawings by Tate resident artist David Shrigley – see www.hybrids-project.com.

Thymann’s most recent project is Project Pressure, documenting the world’s retreating glaciers from every relevant continent on the planet. The not-for-profit organisation has official collaborations with the World Glacier Monitoring Service, NASA and is recognized as an official contributor to Global Terrestrial Network for Glaciers. The project will be launched on multiple platforms; an international touring exhibition curated by Neville Wakefield of P.S.1 Museum of Modern Art, New York. A Glacier Atlas publication endorsed by UNESCO. Open source online dissemination, where the entire archive will be available royalty free for future generations to use for scientific, educational and all other non-commercial use. Prestigious include Arts Council England the Queen of Denmark amongst others. Thymann’s devotion and passion for this project has encouraged him to embark on a degree in Environmental Studies at The Open University to further his knowledge in this field.

Through out his career Thymann has directed films and undertaken pro bono assignments for charities and NGOs such as The World Health Organization and UNICEF, Red Cross, London Cycling Campaign, The Homeless World Cup, Teenage Cancer Trust and more.