The Haus der Fotografie is pleased to present the exhibition CHRISTOPHER THOMAS ∙ BITTERSWEET in Burghausen from March 9 to May 19, 2024.
Around 30 photographs from the long-term project BITTERSWEET by Munich-based photographer Christopher Thomas will be on display.
BITTERSWEET is the title of Christopher Thomas' photographic series and at the same time an oxymoron that stands for the combination of the contradictory feelings of regret and nostalgia, innocence and experience.
In the cinematic-looking photographs, Munich-based photographer Christopher Thomas shows symbols that remind him of his childhood and of a feeling of happiness, spontaneity and immediacy: merry-go-rounds, candy floss, Ferris wheels and much more.
The auspicious symbols are embedded in vast rural or urban landscapes that are exposed to loneliness, decay or entropy. Abandoned places of entertainment, escape, romance and childhood.
The fear of the loss of bliss and the confrontation with transience lurks just behind the sweet memories. The passage of time has already become attached or deeply engraved in the structures and places. And yet the symbols still have the power to evoke feelings, moods and sounds of earlier times.
Many years ago, an English author reviewed Christopher Thomas' series New York Sleeps and wrote: "Thomas seems to be obsessed with the past".
In BITTERSWEET, Thomas also deals with places where something was that is no longer so. He visually returns there to imagine what it was like before and draws a line between the potential present joy of life and the melancholy feeling of loss.
An exhibition in cooperation with IRA STEHMANN FINE ART, Munich.
