Thomas Barbèy

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Thomas Barbèy (pronounced Bar-bay) (born on November 18, 1957) is an American photomontage or photomixage artist who produces open-edition black & white prints and signed, limited edition sepia prints. Barbèy's photomixage works are made using original film negatives.

[edit] Biography

Barbèy was born in Connecticut and moved with his family to Europe at six months of age. His schooling was in French. After stints in both Italy and Germany, Barbèy lived in Switzerland for 17 years. He spent one semester at the University of Geneva but left the University to pursue a career in music. His music was successful in Italy and he moved there for 15 years, where he performed under the name of Tom Hooker, and later as the lead vocalist of Elastic Band. He was also the actual voice behind several hits attributed to Den Harrow, an Italian model and pop singer in the 80s who did not actually sing on his early albums. His musical success enabled him to pursue photography as a hobby. By the early 1990s, he had built a fashion photography studio.^{[citation needed]} In 1995, he returned to the United States where he and his wife, Suzanne, now reside in Las Vegas. Barbèy continues to travel the world to take photographs for use in his compositions. Suzanne handles the business side of his work.

His stated influences include: René Magritte, M. C. Escher, Philippe Druillet, Sandro del Prete, Vladimir Kush, Octavio Ocampo^{[citation needed]} and he is sometimes compared with Jerry Uelsmann and Scott Mutter.^[who?]