Thomas Barrow Takes an Ice Pick to His Negatives for Art's Sake

In his own words, Thomas Barrow wants to "move from the transparent, window-on-the-world form that has been photography's primary reason for being since its invention, to making it a physical object, an object to be looked at for its own presence and not for a surrogate experience." And for the past 38 years, Thomas has been doing just that, creating tangible photographic pieces by both adding (via his surreal photo sculptures) and subtracting (by taking an ice pick and slashing an X onto his negatives). Next Friday, Derek Eller Gallery in Chelsea will be showing a large retrospective of his beautiful, crazy, clever work, and we think you should all go. The folks at the gallery were nice enough to give us a preview of some of the work that will be on display. Check out the gallery above and see their website for more info.

Also, powerHouse has just released a new book featuring Thomas' "Cancellations" work (those images with the big, ice-picked X's) and you can see it here.