Thomas Hollyman

Who was Thomas Hollyman?

Thomas Benton Hollyman was an American photographer.

Graydon Carter, managing editor of Vanity Fair, included Hollyman in his round-up of “ photographic greats” in his magazine’s Editor’s Letter, January 2005, titled “ The Shots Seen Around the World.” These were photographers he wrote, whose “ travels help form the patina of their characters and the grist for their tales.” Although Hollyman worked primarily as a photographer for most of his career, his quest for new challenges also took him to cinema. In 1963, working with the film-maker and British stage director Peter Brook, he served as director of photography for the big-screen version of Lord of the Flies, learning to operate a movie camera a short while before the film began production in Puerto Rico. Brook selected him as a total unknown.