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Archive Authors
Lew Thomas (194?-)
Photographer, theorist, curator and publisher Lew Thomas co-founded NFS PRESS in San Francisco in 1976 with Donna-Lee Phillips. Selected titles published from 1976 to 1981 includes: Photography and Language (1976), Eros And Photography (1977), Structural(ism) and Photography (1978), and Still Photograp
hy: The Problematic Model (with co-editor Peter D’Agostino). Some of these projects also took the form of group exhibitions. Structural(ism) and Photography was a collection of Thomas's own texts and image-text pieces.
The four publications provided reproductions and text for more than 100 photographers, artists, and writers. The books were characterized by thought-provoking essays that included “Photography and Language," by James Hugunin; “Ontology of the Snapshot," by Robert Leverant; “Reinventing Documentary," by Allan Sekula; “The Cycolograph and Work Motion Model," by Bruce Kaiper; “John Heartfield," by Doug Kahn; “Gay Semiotics," by Hal Fisher.
Some of the photographers represented in the four books: Joel-Peter Witkin, John Gutmann, Fred Lonidier, Victor Landweber, Bart Parker, Carl Loefler, Lutz Bacher, Jim Melchert, John Baldessari, Robert Heinecken, Cindy Sherman, Ellen Brooks, Barbara Kruger, Muntadas, Reese Williams, Dennis Adams, Adolfo Nodal, Barbara Jo Revelle, Larry Sultan/Mike Mandel, Donna-Lee Phillips, and Lew Thomas.
A freelance photographer and art consultant since 1995, Thomas served as Visual Arts Curator for the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans from 1988-1995, and as Executive Director of the Houston Center for Photography, Houston, Texas, from 1985-87. He has taught and lectured on photography at North Texas State University; the University of Arizona, Tucson; San Francisco State University; the Center for Experimental and Interdisciplinary Arts; City College of San Francisco; and the San Francisco Art Institute.
A four-time recipient of National Endowment for the Arts fellowships (1986, 1980, 1979, 1975), Thomas has also been awarded three grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as other grants and honors, among them the American Federation of Arts Award of Excellence. He has exhibited his work widely throughout the U.S. and internationally in solo and group shows, and his works are in numerous collections.
Lew Thomas works in New Orleans but maintains a residence in San Francisco.
E-mail addresses: lthomas16@aol.com and lthomas19@aol.com.
Homepage: www.lewthomas.com.
In the Photography Criticism CyberArchive:
- "West Coast Conceptual Photographers" (1976)
Catalogue Essays
Book Reviews
Books
From STRUCTURALISM and PHOTOGRAPHY (1978)
A Lew Thomas Bibliography (Selected)
1995
The Body Photographic, 1995, Editor, Contemporary Arts Center (CAC), New Orleans.
1994
Picture Book, 1994, Author, NFS Press, New Orleans.
1989
Louisiana Artists' Pages: Love in the Ruins, 1989. Curator & Editor, CAC.
Lies and More Lies: Photography of Representation, 1989, Curator & Editor, CAC.
1984
The Restless Decade: John Gutmann's Photographs of the Thirties, 1984, Editor, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York; reprinted 1986.
1981
Still Photography: The Problematic Model, 1981, Co-editor, NFS Press, San Francisco.
1980
Pages From A Child's Documentary, 1980, Co-author, NFS Press, San Francisco.
1979
18th near Castro Street X 24, 1979, Editor, NFS Press, San Francisco.
1978
Gay Semiotics, 1978, Editor, NFS Press, San Francisco.
1977
Photography & Ideology, 1977, Editor, Dumb Ox Press, Los Angeles.
Structuralism & Photography, 1977, Author, NFS Press, San Francisco.
Eros & Photography, 1977, Co-editor, NFS Press, San Francisco.
1976
Photography & Language, 1976, Editor, NFS Press, San Francisco.
1975
8 x 10, 1975, Author, NFS Press, San Francisco.
1974
The Thinker, 1974, Author, The Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco.
(Photo credit: "Portrait of Lew Thomas," 2002. Photo © copyright 2002 by ??. All rights reserved.)