Thomas Gardiner
Untitled USA and Western Canada
November 4–29, 2015
Throughout the month of November 2015, Blue Sky presented two series by photographer Thomas Gardiner: Untitled USA and Western Canada, both of which depict everyday life within working class towns of North America. Untitled USA, Gardiner’s most recent project, is a continuation of Western Canada, which came to fruition after the artist returned to his home province of Saskatchewan after spending a few years away for school. Through the lens of his 4x5 camera, the Western Canada of Gardiner’s youth was transformed into “a place from another era, yet at the same time it felt more familiar than ever before.” During his graduate studies at Yale, Gardiner switched to an 8×10 camera, and began photographing areas of the Northeast around New Haven that reminded him of the Canadian towns he had left behind. The resulting images are full of exquisite details recorded on the artist’s color negatives, with the large-scale prints on display inviting viewers to immerse themselves in these thoughtfully-composed scenes.
Thomas Gardiner is a photographer currently based in Vancouver, British Columbia. He earned his BFA from Cooper Union in New York City, and later graduated from Yale with an MFA in photography. His work has been featured on Slate.com and Lenscratch photo blogs, as well as in print and online through Aint-Bad Magazine.