He displayed an intimate collection of portraits both in color and black and white, telling stories to the school children who visited the exhibition today, about what inspired him to photograph each person. Jomarie Lanza was also there and here's her report.

As you move through the exhibition you'll encounter faces of all ages, different ethnicities, poses, and settings, they all have a story, one that is worthy of being captured, says Emilio.

Emilio Thomas, Artist, Photographer
"This is my first exhibition, however I did realise some photo's last year at the inauguration of the Seine Bight welcome centre in Siene Bight village. Ive been practicing photography professionally since October of 2023 and hundreds of hours everyday so it sums up to years of experience."

"Photography became an interest when I became interested in film because that is the end game to go into film a lot of elders dying in my community who have very important, ancestral knowledge and it's not only the stories that they tell or the way they tell the stories and if someone else was to tell that same story it wouldn't be the same so I wanted to capture those moments before these people leave because they have been going for a while."

What exactly draws him in, though, to choose a photographic subject? Well it all depends on the moment, and the mannerisms of the person, but often it's their smile and other interesting facial features.

Emillio Thomas, Artist, Photographer
"In photography I mainly focus on portraiture to capture images of people as well as, I like capturing people's expressing themselves in a way that they are doing what they are doing and I'm not taking away from that but also to let them see their world from a different perspective because they would never think that they look like this in a photograph and if I were to ask them to take that picture they would give me a pose that is unreal to me and to them that they wouldn't get the experience of what I have to offer through my eyes."

Thomas, who is also a globe trotting musician with the Garifuna Collective says he finds beauty in many unexpected places:

Emillio Thomas, Artist, Photographer
"I have interacted with at least 200 indigenous tribes in the globe and one of the places that I met so many would be in Panama at a tribal gathering setting where they have many tribes from different continents. And one of the things that I liked to capture are the smiles of people because great beauty lies in the smiles of human beings that occupy a space so, and then I use these images as well to teach people that happiness is a choice and you can choose to be happy for the rest of your life you don't have to be happy for 2 days or on the weekend then unhappy for five days so 2 out of 7."

And in this exhibition there are a few smiles, but Emilio says what led him to select them for display are the stories behind the moment.

Emillio Thomas, Artist, Photographer
"But I went about selecting them based on the stories that I remember because I did create a relationship with these people in seconds or minutes and during that time I captured the picture so I pretended for some of them that I was adjusting the camera but I was actually taking pictures so you would never know that I am taking a picture."