Thomas Negovan was born in Chicago and is the author of numerous art history books documenting rare work from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He has curated exhibitions and collections of rare and important Art Nouveau, Symbolist, and Expressionist artworks, lectured on the Vienna Secession and German cabaret during the Weimar Republic, and written the definitive monographs on artists Gail Potocki, Clive Barker, David Mack, and Michael Hussar. As a photographer, his work has been published in Condé Nast travel publications, and in the field of music worked as orchestra director for R. Kelly and recorded an entirely analog album on wax cylinder in 2011. In that year, Negovan gave a TEDx talk "By Popular Demand" on his experience in creating the first music recorded and released without the use of electricity in over a century. Aurora (2018) is his first film.