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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CHRISTOPHER THOMAS: New York Sleeps
Exhibition: December 3, 2009 – January 9, 2010
Reception and Book Signing: December 3, 6-8pm
Press:
Amsterdam
News, January 7, 2010
The New York
Times, December 20, 2009
The
New York Times, September 4, 2009
Time
Out New York, December 3, 2009
Treading in the footsteps of Charles Marville, Brassaï and Atget, German photographer Christopher
Thomas
creates black and white images of cities in a state of repose, as if only the viewer's gaze could animate
these
empty streets. After years of photographing his native Munich, Thomas turned his camera on his adopted
city,
New York. The resulting exhibition of 30 large-scale cityscapes feels both nostalgic and contemporary,
offering an elusive glimpse of 19th century tranquility while hinting at a cryptic apocalyptic ending
just around
the bend.
The exhibition, co-curated by Ira Stehmann and Petra Giloy-Hirtz, accompanies the publication of New
York
Sleeps, by Christopher Thomas, Petra Giloy-Hirtz (editor) Ira Stehmann (editor), with essays
by Robert
Shamis and Ulrich Pohlmann. (Prestel, Munich, Berlin, London, New York, 2009)
Curator Bob Shamis writes in his essay Coming Upon New York: “The quietness that these photographs
evoke, so at odds with our expectations, is at first unsettling for someone well acquainted with New
York.
The urban landscape may be familiar, but this is not the city that most of us know and experience. The
total
absence of people in Thomas’ photographs is the result of shooting in the early morning hours,
when even
New York’s streets are almost deserted, and because of the necessity of making long exposures with
his view
camera. With his lens shutter opens for many seconds for each exposure, moving figures did not register
on
the slow film that Thomas used, reinforcing the impression of the city as the site of a lost civilization.”
From views of an abandoned Staten Island ferry terminal to the deteriorating Coney Island Cyclone, Thomas
documents urban scenes that while outwardly static, show a city in perpetual transition. The presence
of
previous inhabitants lingers heavily within each frame, like dinner plates that have recently been cleared
away.
Like a Surrealist flaneur, Thomas explores the complex tension between absence and presence in his
dreamlike outer landscapes. Devoid of human figures, his images of winding alleyways, imposing monuments
and gleaming mist-filled harbors veer off at random into psychological terrain. Using a custom large-format
camera and Polaroid film, he has created a nebulous archive of our collective inner longings.
Born in Germany in 1961, Christopher Thomas has worked for magazines such as Geo, Stern, Merian,
and
the Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin. He has produced numerous photo essays and received
international
awards for commercial and fine art photography. He lives and works in Munich and New York.
Christopher Thomas: New York Sleeps will be on view December 3, 2009 through January 9, 2010.
Steven Kasher Gallery is located at 521 W. 23rd St., New York, NY 10011.
Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11 to 6pm.
For more info or press requests please contact Kat Jones
at 212 966 3978 or kat@stevenkasher.com.
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