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Pieces from the Alone Together series are sold framed and mounted. Photography has infiltrated our world with its air of authenticity, finding itself at the forefront of media, our personal connections, and even the writing of history. Disrupting this notion, Thomas Card presents photography in obscurity through his series “Alone Together.” With each step the viewer takes toward these images, the experience changes. What was once a landscape with a stark horizon line gives way to a series of coded images hidden among the varying tonal values. This distorted environment reveals itself to be a photographic collage of hundreds of repeated images mounted to the surface.

 

The subjects before Card’s lens are mutated, miniaturized, and translated into a pattern of small repeating images. As their clarity and tone wax and wane they consume the entirety of the piece. In this new duplicated form, we experience the meaning of each subject evolve. A once singular narrative encapsulated within the image transforms. The mere act of repeating the image, again and again, adds to its story elevating it into one of cultural symbolism. Stepping back now, these newfound symbols with newfound meanings coalesce. An illusion of the sky and ground unfolds before us. Card manipulates the foundations of aesthetics, inviting us to a more articulate vision of our world in the multi-dimensionality of his work. Our world, burdened by a self-created and perpetuated imposition of order, mechanically reproduced with the inevitable impact of so-called progress on our landscapes and humanity as a whole. But upon closer examination, hidden in the details of his meticulous pieces, Card offers some hope as the individual landscapes suggest an often overlooked perspective of beauty. “Alone Together” invites even more analysis and debate by clearly referencing Chaos Theory, computer coding, numerology, market patterns, biorhythmic and even more patterns existing in the natural and unnatural world.

 

The world can seem cold and cruel, but we can still manage to find a connection. In his experimentations, Card’s “Alone Together” challenges his viewers to search for new meanings in the people, the places, and the objects that surround them. While mankind actively seeks to leave its mark on the world, we can still find the individual among the industrialization of our world. Moments of personalization seep through the grain, the pixels, and the cracks of society. In times when it feels as if isolation has prevailed, we can uncover new beauty and new opportunities as we move forward together.

Thomas C. Card is an American artist based in New York. Card has always seen the world through the lens of art, questioning how to elevate the most simple and mundane aspects of life into their most aspirational state. And similarly, how to make the most fanciful and whimsical elements communicate their most profound meaning. Underlying Card’s work you will find mathematical formulas and symbolism that draw on scientific theories and art history alike.

 

Born in Johnson City, Tennessee and raised in Decatur, Illinois, Card rose out of the rough and tumble industrial environment through his achievements in art. Card’s work gained national attention even before graduating from high school, landing him a scholarship to the School of Art at Washington University in St. Louis. Within a short time after graduation, Card had already developed a reputation as a master printer working for top photographers in New York City. By the age of 23, his own work was published in international magazines.

 

Card’s large-scale landscape photographic collages, entitled “Alone Together,” form the central focus of his most theoretical work. With this work, Card uses the single image as a mark playing with repetition, sequencing, context, and tonal values to create complex layers of coded meaning. By repeating the print images in collage form, the role of the singular image changes, no longer solely functioning as an isolated representation but rather a part of a larger meaning. The image continues to convey a singular meaning, but enhanced by a contextual meaning, further enhanced through sequencing and finally through repetition. The form and pattern emerge with balance and assigned values, all referencing historical norms, while playing with new context and symbols.

 

Card’s first book and multi-media show, “Tokyo Adorned,” explores the expression of individuality and self through intimate studio portraits of Tokyo’s fashion tribe members. Work from this sold-out book has been seen in multiple shows across the country. Tokyo Adorned received high praise from major media outlets, and Card was interviewed repeatedly regarding his process and experiences surrounding the book and the show.

 

Card has been featured in numerous international publications including American, German and French Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, the London Sunday Times, Vogue Gioiello and the New York Times Magazine. His sense of beauty, wit, and whimsy permeates his style of storytelling and can been seen in his collaboration on numerous advertising campaigns including Gucci, Ferragamo, Issey Miyake, Baume & Mercier, Marc Jacobs, Apple and more.