BIOGRAPHY
Thomas Barbey
A gondola gliding down a cathedral aisle --a young couple walking hand in hand on a beach in the bottom of a swimming pool--surfers catching a wave in the middle of downtown traffic--are these images from a strange dream? Or did they arise in the unconscious mind of a visionary artist?
Welcome to the surreal world of Thomas Barbey, photocollage artist. With unlimited imagination and consummate skill he combines wildly disparate imagery into one seamlessly beautiful piece of art. And all this with classic photographic techniques-- not a computer in sight.
Thomas Barbey was born in Connecticut in 1957, and was taken to Europe by his parents when he was six months old. After Italy and Germany, came Switzerland where he lived for 17 years. All his schooling was in French. He left the University of Geneva after one semester to pursue a career in the music business. After entering the Italian music charts, he moved to Italy and stayed there for 15 years. He successfully pursued the music business to pay for all his bills and kept photography as an expensive hobby. He then owned a full blown photographic studio for Fashion photography in the early 90s and finally moved back to America in 95.
Thomas Barbey Artworks, L.L.P. was formed in 1999 by Thomas Barbey and his wife Suzanne Barbey, The inspirations for my work comes from many years of traveling all over the world, everyday life and from some of my favorite artists, such as René Magritte, M.C. Escher or Roger Dean. I bring my Mamiya RB 67 or several old Canon AE-1s wherever we go to shoot my photographs. The process of the montage starts with concept. It is then followed by the exposure and selection of the negatives. The design is then created by carefully choosing printing procedures as combination printing; sandwiching negatives together; thereby printing them simultaneously; pre-planned double exposure in the camera; the re-photographing of collaged photographs; and/or a combination of the above. The pictures can be appreciated without knowledge of their technical virtuosity. Photographers run deep in our family. Now and then we will take old negatives out of the family archives and use them in our work. We hope you appreciate them as much as we do.
Thomas Barbey photography is represented exclusively in Santa Fe, NM at POP Gallery. Contact us directly for availability of one of a kind and limited edition silver gelatin works at 505.820.0788.
|
|
|
|
| |
|
