Meet Thomas Rafus Jr

We were lucky to catch up with Thomas Rafus Jr recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Thomas, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

I personally believe my work ethic comes from the place I call home. Throughout my life, growing up in Baltimore had allowed me to develop two perspectives of simply being from here.

Perspective one: I, like many other people who are born and raised here, felt as though I had to leave Baltimore after awhile because of the things that I’ve grown accustomed to (violence, poverty, and all the other negative connotations), just to feel like “I made it.” This mindset resulted in not knowing what I wanted to do with myself because I honestly didn’t want to be a name or a face here. Really, it was a fear of mine. I had the fear of being somebody and falling victim to the crab in a barrel cycle that Baltimore carries.

Perspective two: It wasn’t until I picked up my first camera when I realized that my initial perspective was invalid. I realized I had to get out of that fear, step out of my comfort zone and just get to work. I always knew everyone has their own story and after experiencing a life changing moment, I had to figure out how to tell my own. Photography became more than a hobby. During Covid, photography became somewhat of my coping mechanism and confidence builder. I started a YouTube channel to capture my photography/videography journey in real time. While capturing my journey in Baltimore, I started meeting new people, going places around the city that I would only drive past, attended all different types of events, and everything about this journey was beautiful. My good friend who’s a music artist in the city made me see that it’s important to be somebody where you’re from. He says all the time “no matter what, I need Baltimore behind me.” The way he allows his work to express his love for Baltimore made me see that I was doing the same so I started to embrace it. Who would I be if I just up and left my city without creating that foundation, something to always come back to you know?

So, my work ethic comes from wanting to be known as a creative at the center of where I’m from. Everything starts from home, no matter what you do. No love is stronger than the love from your home. When it’s all said and done I just want my work to be remembered here, I want my work to be spoken on and displayed, along with many of the beautiful things and creations that come from this place. I want to be apart of the rich history that this city carry.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

You may know me by “Thirdeye T” and I have been a freelance photographer since about 2021. I believe the overall objective of my work is to promote exposure and experience. In 2022, I started my Thirdeye T YouTube channel and I would vlog behind the scenes of photoshoots whether it’s mine or a friend’s. I also conducted a few interviews with people around the city as well. My platform is to bring more insight into what’s going on in the creative realm of Baltimore. There’s so many creatives and entrepreneurs here, so I use my own work to bring more exposure to the work of different creators.

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?

Number one, stay consistent. Just get to work, create incentives for yourself, find something inspiring to make you want to go out and shoot. Number two, find your style and create separation. There are so many creators here, what makes you different? Based off of your creative name, it should be a reflection your work because you should treat your name as your currency. The last area would be to know your end goal behind what you’re doing. It’s cool to make your creativity a hobby, but in this community, your energy is felt through your work. Ultimately, you would want to make sure your work reflects your objective for when it’s said and done.

That’s what kept me grounded all of this time, on top of learning from some great photographers that I personally know. Any creatives in the making, please follow those steps, trust your gut, and your story will be told soon.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

I always look forward to working with any and everybody in the photography community. Whether its here in Baltimore, traveling around the DMV, NY, you name it. I love the community that I’m in, networking is always genuine, well I at least try to keep it that way. I often represent the creators in the underground scene and they are the types of creators that I love to collab with. It’s possible for every single creative to be successful in the same moment of time. I’m a person of journey and process. Collaboration is a story in itself and I look forward to telling it 20+ years from now. My message to any other creatives reading this: Let’s work!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thirdeyet_?igsh=NWdiMHl4NW1tc3pw
• Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCh36-_eyDVhhYxKVrJFxF2g?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaa9uhkJ_6Oh-hQwLUHnBBtV-T9qt9A9e14c_0IqFR1Cp00tH_qXSP4Q60s_aem_OIEJk3FlkRD_b7qxspWudg

Image Credits

All images shot by Thirdeye T