Animalis is the latin word meaning, "to have breath" and is the word from which we get the English word animal. With these images my intent is to show that by manipulating the film grain via bleaches and multiple development baths, with brushes and toners I can achieve a type of mark that is unique in the history of art. My goal is to link the world of drawing
and the world of photography in these images. I want them to be part document, part cave drawing and part dream. In the best of these images I want the viewer to be able to draw a visual link from the first marks made by humans to the dawn of photographic representation. As in all my work I am in effect attempting to mine the spaces that exist between photography, drawing, science and religion.
 

“…In all his works the artist depicts various stages of organic life forms and plants using different highly specialized printing techniques in order to create images in which he transcends the "realistic" observation of nature into dreamlike images of high aesthetic quality.

The so called "Desert Series" has been realised in a journey by the artist to a desert in Arizona. While photographing in the natural landscape, Brummett puts single objects like cactuses, flowers and tress, into view. Hethus creates a surreal atmosphere - never revealing the landscape as a whole - in order to initialise the viewer's own imagination. As he puts it:

"I have moved from a dialog of reproduction, observation and scale to a conversation about nature, technology and memory; the act of acute observation as it pertains to science and religion, the historical notion of an 'object of wonder' along with the development of a personal natural history 'collection' or 'cabinet'. What I am now attempting is to try to mine the areas where these concerns and ideas overlap. () I collect these natural objects and photograph them in such a way as to turn them into a type of cultural memory. By finishing them as Iris prints I hope to add a final layer of meaning" (Brummett)

In the series titled "Re-Thinking the Natural " which relates also to the above stated ideals, Brummett concentrates on single flowers and fruits using a restrained palette of brown and earth like tones. The stippled surface of the Iris prints used here adds to the otherworldliness in which the simple subject is imbued. Taking the objects out of their natural context, the artist creates images of high beauty with a floating, dreamlike atmosphere, a "memory space" which rises questions about the passing of time and the vanity of life.

Thomas Brummett, born in the United States in 1955 and working as a photographer since 1983, has widely shown in galleries and museums all over the United States. His work has been collected in numerous American private and public collections including the Museum of Fine Arts Houston Thomas Brummett lives and works in Philadelphia.”

Galerie Karsten Greve , März 2003