By Summer Tyler
Tyler Thompson, a 2023 Purchase graduate and former photography major, showcases his love for music as well as his photography in his newly formed magazine titled Tomorrow's Vision.
The magazine focuses on capturing music events and has had several published articles featuring up-and-coming musical artists as well as photography. Thompson works as a photographer and currently lives in Queens, NY.
Tomorrow's Vision founder Tyler Thompson. (Photo by Joshua Davis)
What inspired you to start up the magazine Tomorrow's Vision?
I've always wanted to start a magazine. I've met so many cool people who make so many cool things, especially music. Music has always been a big part of my life, so I've always had a connection to it. I thought: What is a way that people can see their work and could get people to come and view their stuff? I thought of the magazine. It's a fun process. The main writer is Jennifer Ward [a senior journalism major]. Barbara Kay has written for it [a Purchase alum], and Lyric Hounshell [a Purchase student]. I know other people who want to write articles as well. I'm going through the process of getting them articles that they can write. I definitely want to do more articles about events too. I also do video interviews for the magazine and I have a recording team: Gray Taylors [a producer/director for the videos], James Lewis, and George Desjarlais.
A Tomorrow's Vision article on cnspracy was published on July 10. (Photo by Tyler Thompson)
Were you influenced by any musicians when creating the magazine?
I'm not necessarily taking inspiration from magazines I've read; I'm trying to make it my own
thing. It's hard to create a magazine and make it different from everybody else's. The first article was posted in March. I started taking pictures for it and getting everything together for it around August 2023.
Talk to us about Purchase. What opportunities here influenced your career?
At first, I didn't want to major in photography. I originally came to school for theater design. I think through doing the shows and liking how the sets were made, I picked up a camera and started taking pictures. There's something about people on a stage and all the work that's put into it that I really like when it comes to capturing an event, like the big shows at The Stood and Culture Shock. I've met some really cool people that are really inspiring to me that have led me down this path. I wish the conservatories that we were all in pushed us to do more things, they never really showed us what to look into. It took my senior class to ask: What do we do when we get into the real world? And then we were shown places to look into. But
I think we've all done pretty good so far I'd say. American rapper, Bobby Shmurda, performed at Afrodisiac in 2023. (Photo by Tyler Thompson)
What does this upcoming year look like for you?
Right now, I'm working on a story that I've been writing. Once I'm done writing the story, I want to photograph different characters from the story, and then get people to stand in as the characters, and I'm envisioning how I want them to look. I'm very big on mixed media. I like creating different characters, I just never knew what to do with it until now. I've started to think more openly about what I do with my craft. In terms of the magazine, hopefully, in the near future, I'd like to throw a concert for the magazine and invite people who have been in the magazine or those who haven't been in the magazine to come and perform.
An artist named MUDA! (Photo by Tyler Thompson)
Is there anything else you wish to share pertaining to your work?
I try to keep all of my projects separate from each other so they don't all become too scrambled. It's that sense of being in control of what you're making and not letting the work you're making be in control of you. I feel like for example with music and different forms of media, when you have so many ideas, it can become really overwhelming. I think that's something I had to figure out for myself when I was at Purchase. I had so many things I wanted to do but you know, you have your school work, your craft, as well as your life outside of your craft. It's a matter of putting things in its rightful place before it can cross over.
A Tomorrow's Vision article about 8muhan was published on April 10.
(Photo by Tyler Thompson)
You can check out Tomorrow's Vision content on Instagram and YouTube, as well as Thompson's work.
Comments