Thomas Barbey

Thomas Barbey is a master at mixing pictures. His art known as photo montage is the process of artfully combining two or more photographs to come up with a convincingly real art piece. For all of those who just read the description of photo montage and thought ‘oh yea, I am a master at mixing too.’ - think again ’cause there’s a lot more than meets the mind, but then again that’s part of the illusion that Thomas Barbey perfects. Being a born into the digital age, one is to assumed Barbey’s magic was a slight of hand technique also known as Photoshop. When asked how he created his work Barbey looked at me and said “I am an old fart. I am 52 years old. I sit there and develop these pictures by hand”. I was suddenly that much more impressed with what I saw.

His work has a distinct point of view. At first glance his artwork looks simply pretty. With Unicorns, and the Eiffel Tower, and fairies sprinkling dust over the city of Paris, everything seems suited for a child’s imagination. However, if you study each piece you will see that his art has an– Alice in Wonderland twisted point of view on iconic things– kind of feel. His work certainly has a voice.
Thomas Barbey's photograph can be described as a process of surrealistic narration, in which he combines photos he has taken over a span of 20 years from places near and far, into fascinating imaginary worlds. His stories really come together once he titles them,bringing to them a whole new meaning. Like in the photo above you see a montage of a bedroom scene and a beach scene, which he titles, “Wet Dreams” and you think, well of course what else would it be, but clearly only the vision of a true artist could marry those two contrasting images into such a seamless concept. Thomas travels 2-3 times a year to take photographs of different things and places. Sometimes he uses an image several years later, but only when it fits, like the perfect piece in a puzzle and completes his project. Some images are composed of negatives that are separated by a decade in the actual time from when they were first taken and only come to life when they have found their perfect match.
Thomas exhibits in galleries throughout the world and is included in many private collections.