I’m Keonna Thomas, and I go by KTV—a surrealist photographer, filmmaker, and
storyteller born and raised in Maryland. From Mattaponi Elementary to Bowie State
University, my life has always circled around one question: how do you turn feelings
into worlds?
I started out wanting to be an actress, writing monologues for my imaginary NYU
auditions. My mom called one of them a poem, and that “mistake” quietly turned me
into a poet. From there came scripts, iPhone “movies” with my family as the cast,
YouTube videos, and eventually a camera that never really left my hands.
At Bowie State, I majored in Visual Communication & Digital Media Arts and fell in love with both film and photography. I worked as a Production Assistant and script
supervisor on indie films, then moved into behind-the-scenes photography with
1939 Studios and the Prince George’s Film Festival. Being on set—around people
obsessed with creating—made me realize I didn’t just want to document stories. I
wanted to design them.
Everything shifted when I discovered the surrealist work of photographer Aïda
Muluneh. Her images felt like what had been sitting inside me all along: bold,
symbolic, emotional. That’s when I committed to surrealism—building sets,
developing concepts, and creating images that feel like still frames from a dream.
Today, my work explores womanhood, vulnerability, and the inner lives we rarely
say out loud. I’ve shown in spaces like the Harlem Fine Arts Show and continue to
exhibit my art so people who may never meet me can still see themselves in the
work.
My name is Keonna, and I go by KTV.
If you don’t remember me, I hope you remember the images.
