photo-eye | BLOG: Tom Chambers: Hearts and Bones

Photographer Tom Chambers holding a copy of his new monograph, Hearts and Bones, at photo-eye Gallery.

Tom Chambers: Hearts and Bones, opened at the end of November and we are thrilled about the enthusiastic response the work has received from the fine art community in Santa Fe. photo-eye Gallery is proud to have represented Chambers for more than a decade now and he's become one our most popular artists over the years. Since his first solo exhibition in 2007, Chambers' narrative photomontages have delighted viewers by inviting them to believe in a world rich with magic and mysticism. Hearts and Bones is a mid-career retrospective; a celebration of Chambers' complete body of work covering more than twenty-five years and includes three images from his yet-to-be-titled portrait series, Nesting with Scissors, Hide Your Eyes, and Now Now. Paul Weideman of the Pasatiempo wrote an excellent summary of Chambers' work and career in his December 14th cover story with background and commentary provided by the artist. Here's an excerpt from Weideman's article Of Girls, Birds, and Cloudy Skies discussing Chamber's new work:

Gallery Associate Julaine Worthington holding a copy of the December 14th issue of the Pasatiempo featuring Tom Chambers' image Fire and Ice on the cover.

If viewers are seeking meaning in his works, they may often be confounded, or at least challenged. But his methodology also makes it fun to view them and discover nearly hidden elements. The main subject of Hide Your Eyes is a girl with a hooded hawk on her wrist partially lifting a blindfold. There are birds here and there, and two rabbits camouflaged in the grass. The hawk was a stuffed bird Chambers found in a case at a hawk sanctuary. “Hide Your Eyes is one of a very new series. I have seven completed right now and three are at the gallery for this show. I wanted to shake up my work, to do something totally different. I set parameters. I decided they would be full-length portraits, all the same size, all looking directly ahead, all with the horizon line at knee height so it would be mostly sky, and the colors would be muted.”

Another of his newest pictures is Nesting With Scissors. Here is a young lady standing, looking out of the frame at us as she cuts her hair with a large pair of scissors. She has a sad look on her face. Sparrows are harvesting the cut hair in midair and on the ground, using it to improve their nest. Chambers said he has not yet nailed down the artistic statement for this new series. The parameters limit the basic look of the photos, so the story is told purely by means of the other elements and the action. “I don’t know the name of the series yet. It has to do with storytelling and maybe heroines, because I think this will be all girls.” – Paul Weideman

» READ THE FULL ARTICLE

We'll have more from Tom later in January about his new portrait series when we release the full portfolio of images alongside a new interview with the artist. In the meantime, we are incredibly grateful for your enthusiasm and support this year, and wish you all the best in the year to come.