Thomas Barbey Influence Paper

Shannan Koeller
Senior Seminar
Prof. Romero
March 4, 2015
Artist Influence
Surrealism is his gift and his ability to create a flawless scene out of different images is
breath taking. Thomas Barbey was born in the United States but moved to Switzerland when he
was a baby and started drawing when he was 13. He also lived in Milan, Italy for 15 years and
worked as a recording artist, lyricist and fashion photographer. Eventually Barbey and his wife
moved back to the U.S. and is now living in Las Vegas. He has been a photographer for over
twenty years now, favors his old Canon AE1 and only works in black and white. Sometimes, a
finished piece takes years to complete because he waits and gathers images from his travels until
the perfect idea comes together.
"The process of my montage starts with concept (Clever Black and Whites by Thomas
Barbey)". Barbey strives to create an image that makes the viewer stop and engage themselves
in the work. His careful process to create a flawless piece takes a considerable amount of skill.
"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. I sometimes retouch and/or airbrush the collages before re-photographing them from
above with a special contraption to hold the camera in place. I then make a master negative to
make a limited edition of prints (Clever Black and Whites by Thomas Barbey)". He says his
ideas and inspiration are a gift from God, but he has other influences as well.
Philippe Druillet, also known as "Space Architect", is a French comic book author, artist
and illustrator. His science-fiction themed work is very bold and colorful with surreal characters
and surroundings (Philippe Druillet-Wikipedia). Roger Dean is another influence of Barbey's.
Dean is an English artist and designer and is known for his album cover designs, posters, and
books. Much of his work exhibits exotic, fantasy landscapes with bright colors and dreamlike
objects (Roger Dean Biography). Barbey's other influence is Hans Rudolf Giger, a Swiss
surrealist painter, sculptor and set designer. Giger had a specific style that depicted human bodies
in a "biochemical" form and was part of the special effects team for the movie Alien. He also
dabbled in interior design where he also applied his unique style (H.R. Giger- Wikipedia). It is
very apparent how much all of these men have inspired the surrealist work of Thomas Barbey.
Dream Vacation is an
example of one of Barbey's surreal
landscapes. He combines two images,
one of a woman sleeping and a ski
resort scene. The concept is about
dreaming of a better, happier place and
not wanting to wake up and face
reality. He uses the cover the girl is
under to melt into the snowy mountain landscape and puts the skiers and snowboarders in the
foreground to make a more convincible landscape.
Intrusive Art is another example of Barbey's landscape work but has a more realistic
element because of his use of a relatable icon like the Eifel Tower. He uses photography as his
medium because he does not want to produce just "another surrealist artwork". He waits for his
images to fit themselves together instead of drawing

out an idea first, and then taking the pictures. What
makes Barbey unique is how he uses already existing
objects and places and puts them in situations where
they would not normally exist.
Self Exposed is one of my personal favorites.
Barbey shows a portrait of a woman that is lifting a
part of her face like a curtain and revealing an image of
a city. His concept of how people only reveal certain
parts of themselves in certain situations is fascinating and this image says it all perfectly. Barbey
even considers how keeping parts of oneself a mystery is not necessarily a bad thing and
allowing someone to discover one slowly
makes a relationship more interesting.
Barbey is one of my personal influences
and I am absolutely fascinated by his work. I
am trying to make my portrait work more
surreal and hold my viewers so they can
connect to a concept. Even the way Barbey
titles his work is conceptual and I want my
work to be as powerful as his. Like Barbey, I also love to travel and I go nowhere without my
camera. Barbey works with film and does all of his work in a dark room, and I work with a
digital camera and use Photoshop to create my images. I prefer black and white images but I do
work in color a lot whereas Barbey works only in black and white. Barbey's clever and witty
work is so inspiring and I hope to someday produce an image as compelling as his.
Works Cited
"Clever Black and Whites by Thomas Barbey." Eyesin. N.p., 8 Oct. 2012. Web.
<http://www.eyesin.com/article/art-design/photography/clever-black-and-whites-bythomas-barbey/>.
"H. R. Giger." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 04 Mar. 2015.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._R._Giger>.
"Philippe Druillet." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 04 Mar. 2015.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Druillet>.
"Roger Dean." Roger Dean. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.rogerdean.com/biography/>.
"Welcome to Galleries Thomas Barbey!" Galeries Thomas Barbey. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.galeriesthomasbarbey.com/pages/frontpage>.

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Shannan Koeller

images to fit themselves together instead of drawing

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