Christopher Thomas est un photographe allemand, né à Munich en 1961.
Christopher Thomas was born in Munich in 1961. He attended schools in Germany, Brazil and the United States, and completed training in photography at the Bavarian State Institute for Photography. For the last twenty-five years Christopher Thomas has gained renown as an advertising photographer. Nonetheless, his artistic work has become increasingly significant over the past decade, during which prominent photo galleries, museums as well as celebrated collections worldwide have acclaimed, exhibited and purchased his works. For his photo reportages commissioned by the German magazines GEO, Stern, Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin, Merian and others, as well as for his advertising campaigns, Christopher Thomas has been the recipient of international awards.
As an artist Christopher Thomas is best known through his exceptional city portraits: Tranquil photographs of cityscapes taken with a large-format camera and printed on handcrafted paper. The film material used for all of Christopher’s city series is
Polaroid’s black and white film type 55. The photo cycle Munich Elegies was the first of the city portrait series. It was initially exhibited at the Photo Museum Munich in 2005 and published by Schirmer/Mosel. Munich Elegies was followed by New York Sleeps, shot between 2001 and 2009. New York Sleeps was published by Prestel, first edition 2009 (sixth edition 2012) and was winner of the German Photography Book Prize. In 2010 Christopher Thomas succeeded in realizing a deeply moving project: during rehearsals by amateur actors for the Oberammergau Passion Play Christopher Thomas created a cycle of unique portraits which are reminiscent of paintings by the old masters and which capture the energy of the play in an unparalleled manner.
For his Passion Cycle Christopher Thomas received the Art Director Club of Germany’s silver award, the highest accolade of the year 2011 in the category photography. From October 2011 through April 2012 a comprehensive selection of the Passion Cycle was exhibited in the ecclesial hall of the Bavarian National Museum in Munich. In 2013 Christopher Thomas received the German Design Award in the category “Photography” for his breathtaking Passion play photographs. The book version, Christopher Thomas . Passion, Photographs of the Oberammergau Passion Play 2010, was published by Prestel.
Christopher Thomas’ Polaroid series, Venice in Solitude – his latest city portrait series – has recently been presented at galleries and art fairs worldwide; Prestel Publishing published the book in 2012.
Goethe écrivait au début du XIXème siècle que tout avait été déjà dit sur Venise. Aujourd’hui, on pourrait penser que tout a déjà été vu, peint, photographié, filmé. Et pourtant le photographe allemand Christopher Thomas a su porter un nouveau regard sur cette ville qui échappe à la réalité.
Christopher Thomas ne souhaite pas montrer les Vénitiens, ni célébrer les couleurs des façades. Il a travaillé à la chambre (Linhof Technika) sur des pellicules Polaroid 55, en noir-et-blanc. Il a réalisé ses prises de vue la nuit, ou très tôt le matin, quand les choses et les lieux s’estompent dans le lointain. Il ne se r&eacu...
Since 2005, Bernheimer has run a regular program of photography exhibitions. Under the leadership of Blanca Bernheimer the gallery has steadily grown over the last six years and today it is known as one of the leading photography galleries in Germany.
© Lucien Clergue, Nu zébré, New York 1997, Artist Proof
The program of the varying exhibitions sets diverse priorities: firstly, the gallery shows selected "classic" black and white photography from the 20th Century and secondly it presents young artists which are exhibited continuously by regular shows and trade fair presence.
© Guido Mocafico, Walther PPK, 2006, 96 x 120 cm
The exhibition "In the seventh year itch" presents highlights of selected photographers, ...
Fifty One Fine Art Photography is pleased to present “Venice in Solitude”, the second solo show of Christopher Thomas (b. 1961). This German based Photographer creates black and white images of cities in a state of rest, deserted, like the metropolis is holding its breath. In former projects the artist already photographed his hometown Munich and urban giant New York. Today he is turning his large-format Polaroid camera towards Venice, a city renowned for its history and grandeur, but notwithstanding one of the most important art centers in the world.
This new series embraces a sense of nostalgia, due to the romantic character of the images. Nevertheless, it hints at a contemporary feeling of desolateness.
The serenity and emptiness that these photographs evoke is not what we would expect of this...
This February and March 2012 Bernheimer Fine Art Photography is presenting an exhibition of photographs of Venice by Christopher Thomas entitled Venice - In Solitude. Photographs by Christopher Thomas at the Gallery in Brienner Strasse, Munich.
The exhibition will comprise a selection of over forty photographs by the Munich-based photographer Christopher Thomas, celebrated for his City Portraits: New York Sleeps (2009) und Münchner Elegien (Munich Elegies) (2001–2005). In his new cycle of works Venice - In Solitude Christopher Thomas captivates us with his charmingly atmospheric pictures of a City of Silence, empty of people and standing completely on its own, which take us back to the photographic views of Venice as it was in the nineteenth-century.
For this exhibition the curator Ira Stehma...
Hamiltons Gallery is pleased to present the first exhibition of Venice in Solitude, a new series by the photographer Christopher Thomas. With these captivating, atmospheric images, Christopher brings to Venice his unique style of city portraiture, originally established with New York Sleeps (2009) and Münchner Elegien (Munich Elegies, 2001–2005). He transports us to a silent city, devoid of human presence, which could remind us of photographs from the 19th century, when the photographic image was not fast enough to capture the quickening pace of human activity. The exhibition includes classical views of the Canal Grande, the Doge’s Palace, St. Mark’s Square, Rialto Bridge and others.
At the crack of dawn, just before dusk falls, or at night by the light of the moon, Christopher would set of...
New York Sleeps
Foreword by Petra Giloy-Hirtz and Ira Stehmann, Publication Prestel 2009.
This is New York! Or are they dream worlds, chimeras, inventions, or perhaps testimony to a past era? Viewers are astonished, recognizing the places and getting lost in memories. A city of silence, beyond the turbulence of everyday life, a metropolis with no people, as if a spell had been cast on it: Grand Central Station, Fifth Avenue, the Flatiron Building, Katz's Restaurant, the Brooklyn Bridge-familiar, but never seen this way before.
When we unsuspectingly removed these photographs from a drawer-seven views, all taken in 2001 (before September 11), softly sketched as a result of long exposure times, printed on deckle-edge paper with the streaky border of a Polaroid-we urged the photographer to return to New York, where h...