“I discover motifs all over the world,” says Roman Thomas. “I wait for the moment when the places seem removed from reality due to their architecture, location, context or lighting moods and become my inner places.” In his photographs, which can now be seen in the KWS Art Lounge NEWCOMER, urban space plays a very central role in relation to the human individual. “My pictures are like windows into another reality,” he says. In addition to the large formats, the exhibition also includes the “Cold Stone” series created on the coast of Norway as well as three sets from the “4 Series”, a kind of photographic diary with spontaneous snapshots.
Roman Thomas does not want to create completely new “spaces” in his pictures, but rather interact with the space that surrounds us in our everyday lives. “My favorite places are usually full of people and an integral part of urban life,” says the photographer about his working method. “But because of the way I see and photograph these places, they seem more like a backdrop, have something distant about them, like a hidden place in our soul.”
Roman Thomas has his large formats printed exclusively on matt photo paper and presents them pure in a frame without glass - Hahnemühle paper was used in Einbeck. By eliminating the distance between the image and the viewer, he creates an incredible depth and something painterly in his pictures, says the photographer. Combined with the large formats, this has a special pull effect on the viewer.
At the back of the Art Lounge is a picture that was not taken in London, New York or Paris like the other motifs. Roman Thomas photographed it in the LEO II greenhouse on the KWS site during a shoot for the Research and Breeding departments. “But it became another picture in the 'Hidden Places' series, a place I dreamed of and finally found in a greenhouse. It is one of my inner places,” says Roman Thomas. KWS Executive Board member Dr. Peter Hofmann, who welcomed the visitors to the KWS Art Lounge, reported that it was a special concern of his to open this exhibition. Roman Thomas is already an old acquaintance for KWS and has, among other things, realized an art project in the new KWS office in Berlin. “Since most of the people working for KWS in Berlin have little contact with our products, the idea arose to realize agriculture as an art project at the location,” said Hofmann. “Roman Thomas took on this task with great meticulousness and implemented it very well artistically with the exhibition Agriculture on its creative way to Berlin! while also creating an educational benefit.” With the “Hidden Places” show in Einbeck, Roman Thomas has now realized his own photographic touch, said Hofmann.
At the vernissage, art historian Alexander Leinemann (Göttingen) invited viewers to train their vision and stimulate their thinking: “We have to see the images in their material size.” With his works, photographer Roman Thomas captures something special that is totally lost in everyday life. “Large pictures are simply great,” said Leinemann, ‘large pictures are incredibly fun because they invite us to see a lot and offer us a lot to see’. The photographs are “the art-focused, photographically fixed gaze of an artist who has understood how to be in a place and peel it back”, said the art historian. The photographing artist not only conveys information, but also channels a feeling into the images.
Roman Thomas, born in Celle in 1975, has lived and worked as a freelance photographer in his home town since 1999. His work focuses on the fields of industry and architecture. He is very successful and has received awards such as the German Design Council's Design Award in 2011. He has been pursuing his artistic activities with various group and solo exhibitions since 2010. He has received numerous awards and is a member of the Federal Association of Visual Artists (BBK) Celle, where the BBK's summer exhibition in Celle Castle entitled “Klimatisiert” was last shown in 2020.
A brochure documenting the works in the rooms of the KWS Art Lounge NEWCOMER will be published to accompany the exhibition. Roman Thomas will be on site several times during the exhibition, the dates will be announced in good time. NEWCOMER is open on Wednesdays from 10 am to 1 pm, Fridays from 3 pm to 6 pm and Saturdays from 10 am to 1 pm. The current Corona rules apply.
