To look deeply at Marie Tomanova’s portraits is to see them looking deeply back at you. That is the essence of her series Young American, New York New York and 5 East Broadway. It is about the hope of youth, the power of youth, and about the bond between people—the profound humanness that we all share. Tomanova collaborates with her subjects to reveal a certain presence, investigating the idea of what it means to represent a person, of what is a portrait. In these portraits, the subject is precisely, precisely, precisely who they are, and so is Tomanova. They both claim the right to be themselves, present, visible, and seen. Tomanova’s portraits visualize an America in which individuality is valued as uniqueness and not judged as a lack of sameness. It asserts and acknowledges a sense of self not in terms of some idealized standard of gender, sexuality, or beauty, but as exactly who we each are as unique individuals.

Bio

Czech-born Marie Tomanova currently lives and works in New York. After receiving a painting MFA she left for the United States and focused on photography. She has had solo shows worldwide: New York City, Prague, Tokyo, and Paris; her work has been exhibited in Berlin for the European Month of Photography 2020 Biennial, and at the Rencontres d’Arles in France as part of the Louis Roederer Discovery Award 2021 and where it was selected to the Jimei x Arles International Photo Festival in Xiamen, China in 2021. 

Tomanová is continuously publishing author's books as Young American (Paradigm Publishing, 2019), New York New York (Hatje Cantz, 2021) and It Was Once My Universe (SuperLabo, 2022). A feature length HBO documentary about her artistic career, World Between Us, is currently in development for release in 2024.