Jason Thrasher lives in Athens, Georgia, where he's been working as an artist and professional photographer for 25 years. His coverage of the Southeast's rich and varied music scene includes portraits of the Drive-By Truckers, Guided By Voices, R.E.M., Outkast, Against Me!, Widespread Panic and the Elephant 6 Collective. Thrasher's photography has been published in Rolling Stone, Photo District News, Billboard, New York Magazine, New York Times, Bitter Southerner, Entertainment Weekly, Paste, Salon, Pitchfork, Garden & Gun, USA Today and SPIN. His promotional photography for New West Records, ATO Records, Anti Records, Warner Brothers, Razor & Tie, and Polyvinyl has produced many iconic images. The Georgia Writers Association awarded Thrasher Georgia Author of the Year in 2018 for his book on the local music scene, Athens Potluck. His second book, Murmur Trestle was published in September 2024 by The University of Georgia Press.
Thrasher, a lifelong skateboarder, got his start in photography by documenting skater friends in North Alabama. Along with several other skaters, he created the 80s skate zine, SKATEMENT, which evolved in the early 2000’s into a nationally touring festival of films made by skaters for skaters, Underskatement. The festival was included in Aaron Rose's New York show at Alleged Gallery, Beautiful Losers, along with work by Shepard Fairy, Mark Gonzales, Margaret Kilgallen and other artists and skaters known for their DIY style. Thrasher’s love of skateboarding inspired him to help the Athens skate and BMX community, along with Grindline and the ACC Government, build a world-class skate park in Athens, known as “SPOA.” SPOA’s DIY template sparked a series of similar skate parks throughout the Southeast.
Thrasher’s fine art photography has been exhibited at the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport / Atlanta, ICA / London, Yerba Buena Arts Center / San Francisco, Ogden Museum of Southern Art / New Orleans, Corcoran School of Fine Art / Washington D.C. / The Georgia Museum of Art and the Atlanta Contemporary Arts Center. His work is in the permanent collections of The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, The Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts, Music City San Francisco Museum, The Willson Center of Humanities and the The Georgia Museum of Art.
He lives in Athens, Georgia with his wife and business partner Beth Hall Thrasher and their two daughters and two rescue dogs.
“A beautiful collection of images of our beloved South, complex and nuanced with spark and surprise.” —Michael Stipe
“Murmur Trestle is Jason Thrasher’s visual meditation on one of Athens, Georgia’s most iconic vernacular structures. The trestle was originally made famous by Sandra-Lee Phipps’s Southern Gothic photograph that graced the back cover of R.E.M.’s groundbreaking album Murmur. Thrasher’s book expands upon Phipps’s singular photograph through a William Christenberry– esque multiyear study that beautifully captures the patina of time on the human-built structure as well as the changing natural flora within the surrounding environs.” — Richard McCabe, curator of photography, Ogden Museum of Southern Art
