We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alexandra Thomas. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alexandra below.
Alexandra, we are so deeply grateful to you for opening up about your journey with mental health in the hopes that it can help someone who might be going through something similar. Can you talk to us about your mental health journey and how you overcame or persisted despite any issues? For readers, please note this is not medical advice, we are not doctors, you should always consult professionals for advice and that this is merely one person sharing their story and experience.
So I have autism, OCD, depression and anxiety and I have really struggled with all of this my entire life. I’ve been seeing multiple therapists regularly for a few years now, and I couldn’t recommend therapy more highly. I’ve been lucky enough to surround myself with people who really love and accept me on my good days and my worst days who all really want the best for me in life; which has been a big help in my mental health journey and my recovery from so many problems as well. But before I had therapists and a support system– and even now with those things– my art has really helped me from a very young age to not only let myself feel whatever emotion I may be experiencing that day, but it helps me to get through that extreme emotion by having this safe creative form to express it.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I’m Alexandra Thomas, I’m a photographer, videographer, digital marketing manager and sometimes a publicist and tour manager now based in Austin, TX. I’m currently 22 years old, but I have had a camera in my hands ever since I was a little over a year old before I could even really walk or talk, and I started my photo and video business, AETPhotos, when I was about 15 years old when I began touring with bands. At a very young age of 18 months old I was introduced to photography by my great grandmother when she handed me a disposable film camera and I toddled around taking photos of everything I saw, and I just instantly fell in love with it.
Growing up in DFW, I spent every day outside taking photos and videos of flowers, butterflies, wildlife; anything I saw in the world that I thought was beautiful. Then when I was 15 I went to see my favorite band MISSIO live for the first time at House of Blues in Dallas on the Alt Nation Advanced Placement Tour and I tried to take my camera not knowing that you needed a special pass to bring in a camera. I had waited in line for hours that day in the rain to be the first one in the venue, and once it was time for the doors to open and a long line had formed behind me, security told me I couldn’t bring my camera in and I was SO sad. I had to walk all the way back to the car a few blocks away to put the camera away and come back; and of course by the time I was back the room was crammed full. Thankfully a few nice people let my short 4 foot something at the time teenage self closer to the front and I ended up only a few rows back from the stage where I spent the entire night taking photos and videos on my broken iPhone 4c. As soon as MISSIO got off stage I knew I wanted to be in the music industry doing photo and video work; so I rushed home to research how to get photo passes so that I could photograph them next time they were in Dallas. I started applying to 100s of publications and local venues and reaching out to local bands asking to shoot for them and I was quickly put on a few small tour runs that same year with local Dallas artists, I shot my first music video, and started a job as the house photographer for a local venue.
I have now been in the music industry for 7 years touring, shooting directing and editing music videos, and doing social media management tour management and press for bands. I’ve had the honor of creating with MISSIO several times now which is always such a great full circle moment in my life to experience. I host a benefit concert as often as I can called the You Are Essential concert where I have my musician friends perform and I sell tickets with 100% of sales going to The Trevor Project, a suicide hotline for LGBT+ youth. I now also run my own music publication, Tour Life Mag, to help other young women, LGBT+ and POC creatives get into the music industry. I really like to use my skills and my connections to help others however I can and to give back every chance I have.
One of my favorite projects I’ve worked on was while I was touring as photo/video and doing publicity and digital marketing for Dallas band Prophets and Outlaws. We released a song “Little Bit of Love” featuring Texas music legend Pat Green and we filmed a music video and used the song to help raise money for the North Texas Food Bank. This was during SNOWVID as we called it in Feb of 2021 when the horrible snow storm left many Texans without power, food, or shelter in freezing temps for weeks, and we were able to raise over $10,000 in one week with my social media strategy which provided over 30,000 meals for hungry people across North Texas. That partnership eventually also lead to the boys getting to play at the food bank’s annual event on the field at AT&T Stadium– which was our lead singers biggest dream– so it meant a lot for me to be able to watch that happen and to see him taking it all in the entire day walking around the field together. I remember in the middle of the show he noticed himself on the massive Jumbotrons and he had the biggest smile on his face and he saw me walking around the crowd taking photos and he pointed up at the Jumbotrons and mouthed “LOOK!” with this light in his eyes that you could just tell how much it meant to him. That moment really made me fall in love with my career all over again. I think that’s easily one of my most cherished memories of touring.
I moved to Austin, Texas last October in an attempt to grow my career in the music industry even more (plus I really fell in love with it out here and it’s been a dream of mine for years to live out here) and unfortunately, I had been experiencing some very painful health issues with arthritis in my spine and shoulder blades, muscle spasms in my back and as my doctors said “very extreme and abnormal wear and tear” in my spine that had been making photo and video work incredibly painful to the point of passing out at shows sometimes over the last couple years. During the move I think I made the pain a lot worse and quickly realized I needed to take a step back for a while to try to heal to hopefully come back better than ever. I took almost a year off to do physical therapy and yoga for arthritis every day and generally try to focus on taking better care of my health to try to be able to do what I love again, and thankfully now as of about 2 months ago I’m feeling the best I have in YEARS and am experiencing very little pain while creating. I’m finally back to doing photo and video work again after a long and difficult year off. I spent that entire time hoping I’d eventually be able to do what I love most again, so I focused on researching new editing techniques and just generally trying to learn more about photography and videography that I didn’t know before so that I could come back better than ever. I’d say for the first time in my life I am very proud of the quality of work I provide and how quickly I can provide the best edited work. I really love what I’ve been able to create the last couple months and I am still overflowing with ideas that I’m dying to capture that I’ve been thinking about over the last year on my break; so I’m happy to be able to create again and can’t wait to see what the future holds.
I just released a new music video “Better off alone?” for the artist TRVR?, I had a fun new cooking video with James Guckenheimer aka Aballandbiscuit on youtube come out a little bit ago, and I am always looking to take on new photo and video projects, so please reach out if you ever need a photographer, videographer or social media manager. I’m based in Austin but I travel anywhere for gigs and shoot everything from concerts to weddings to products and more!
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Being very honest and kind is such a massive part of my career. Your art will get you hired the first time but your personality is what’s going to be the deciding factor on if you keep getting hired or not. Now again, I have autism, I am not the most social person in the world to say the least and I’m generally pretty quiet and awkward sometimes– especially at first– but I also love to come into a gig completely honest about who I am and to form real friendships with those that I work with. I also learned early on working in the music industry and touring that you have to be ready to go far above and beyond your job description. I’ve been hired as photo/video but ended up also needing to be the tour manager, PR, run lights, sell merch, etc. at most shows I’ve worked. Being not only able and willing but happy to help out those that you’re working with and just being a good person/a good hang I think is really important to continue to get work. And as far as the art itself goes– always be willing to accept that no matter how long you’ve been doing something, and no matter how good you may be at it right now, there is ALWAYS room to improve and learn more. Changing your style as an artist, listening to others advice, and/or trying something new is a strength, not a weakness.
Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?
So many people get a lot of credit for not only the artist, but the person I am today for being there and helping me in different parts of my life and my career including Matthew Brue, Zeale, Shohn Trauth, Jamie Ringholm, Chris Schmelke, Parker Twomey, Patrick Smith and so many others; but honestly my good friend James Guckenheimer gets a lot of the credit for who I am now as this best version of myself. James is the drummer for Prophets and Outlaws who I’ve had the honor of touring with for the last several years, he also is my 2nd shooter on any video projects I take and he has been the most amazing role model I’ve had in my life. I met him when I was 18 and I was the most depressed I have ever been in my life I was going through a lot of problems in my personal life and I just didn’t really have a support system and didn’t feel comfortable around other people, when I took my first gig with PAO I instantly was brought in and made to feel like part of a family as though I had been touring with them for years. I quickly took to all of them as my family and I adore all of them even when we are all fighting like siblings hahaha; but James especially just always created this environment from day one where I felt very safe to be me and he has always looked out for me. He’s the person I know I can call any time with literally any issue rather it’s a personal matter or trying to figure out what to charge for a project or freaking out not knowing what to do in a situation and I know he will be honest with me and tell me exactly what to do; even when he knows it’s the opposite of what I want to hear. He’s helped me learn SO much more about videography and is the reason I’ve gotten so into video editing, he and his amazing partner Kacey have given me a place to crash and food to eat when things have been difficult and let me join them for thanksgiving and Christmas and helped me find therapists and get health insurance and I’m just incredibly grateful for his friendship. Not only would I not be the artist I am today but I wouldn’t be alive today if not for all of his and everyone else’s help. I really do love this life I’m living now and couldn’t possibly be more grateful for every single person who has been a part of my journey.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.AETPhotos.com
- Instagram: https://www.
instagram.com/AETPhotos - Facebook: https://www.
facebook.com/AETPhotos/ - Youtube: https://www.youtube.
com/channel/ UC7TKF5ujXgPa8jrBzlpSwqA - Other: www.tourlifemag.com
