Ash Thayer is a multidisciplinary artist including photography, film and mixed media. Her artwork is held in several art collections including the Saatchi Gallery in London, The Chicago Art Institute, The Museum of the City of New York and the Ahmanson Collection. Her book Kill City: Lower East Side Squatters 1992-2000, published by powerhouse Books in 2015 consists of images and text from her time spent living in community with housing activists and squatters in 1990’s Lower East Side in NYC.
Kill City earned significant attention, garnering dozens of articles, a book tour, panel discussions and presentations at The New York Mid-Manhattan Public Library and The Colloquium For Unpopular Culture at NYU. In 2016 her book was listed in American Photography Magazine’s list of top 10 photography books of the season.
Thayer is in post-production for her film Metal Kills: The Sport of Western Viking Fighting, an inquiry into the subculture and personal lives of its members who participate in the coed combat sport called Western Viking Fighting. The film is set in various locations in Denmark, shot between 2017 and 2022.