Thomas Ferderbar

Gas Station Base, CA, Route 66

2000

"Shamrock Conoco, TX" is an original color photograph by Thomas Ferderbar. The artist signed the piece lower right. It depicts the entrance to a building in Texas off of Route 66. This photograph is part of the artist's "Route 66" series. Artwork Size: 18 3/4" x 15" Frame Size: 25" x 21" Artist Bio: I wanted to become a photographer at the age of 12, when my sister Grace gave me a Kodak Box Brownie camera for Christmas. (I still have that camera.) Since our family was quite poor, I built my first enlarger with an oatmeal box, while that same box camera was used as its lens. In 1947, just after graduation from high school, I had the opportunity to travel to California by car and house trailer with my uncle, aunt and mother, and in the process to shoot my first pictures along Route 66. Then, after graduation from college, a stint in the army followed by photography school, I opened an advertising photography studio in 1954. For over four decades my staff and I earned numerous local, regional and national awards for our achievements in photography, including several "best of show" honors. In 1958 I studied with renowned landscape photographer Ansel Adams at his Yosemite National Park workshop. In 1980, while still operating my advertising photography studio, I began a serious photographic study of the decaying artifacts along our country's former Mother Road, Route 66. The former national highway route from Chicago, Illinois to Santa Monica, California was not a popular subject at the time, and so I filed away my transparencies, not knowing what I might ever do with them. However, as time passed Route 66 did become a topic of national interest, and upon my retirement in 1997, I once again returned to record the Mother Road's artifacts. A number of my Yosemite series photographs are included in the Ansel and Virginia Adams collection at the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona at Tucson, and several of my Route 66 photographs and other subjects have been acquired by the Milwaukee Art Museum. At this time I am preparing a book of my photographic experiences along Route 66, from 1947 to the present. --Tom Ferderbar

"Abandoned Trading Post (Mural) Near Grants, NM" is a color photograph print on canvas by Thomas Ferderbar. This artwork is from his "Route 66 Series" and is signed lower left. This piece depicts a mural on a dilapidated wall whose colors have begun to chip and fade. 40" x 27 1/2" canvas 40 3/4" x 28 1/4" frame I wanted to become a photographer at the age of 12, when my sister Grace gave me a Kodak Box Brownie camera for Christmas. (I still have that camera.) Since our family was quite poor, I built my first enlarger with an oatmeal box, while that same box camera was used as its lens. In 1947, just after graduation from high school, I had the opportunity to travel to California by car and house trailer with my uncle, aunt and mother, and in the process to shoot my first pictures along Route 66. Then, after graduation from college, a stint in the army followed by photography school, I opened an advertising photography studio in 1954. For over four decades my staff and I earned numerous local, regional and national awards for our achievements in photography, including several "best of show" honors. In 1958 I studied with renowned landscape photographer Ansel Adams at his Yosemite National Park workshop. In 1980, while still operating my advertising photography studio, I began a serious photographic study of the decaying artifacts along our country's former Mother Road, Route 66. The former national highway route from Chicago, Illinois to Santa Monica, California was not a popular subject at the time, and so I filed away my transparencies, not knowing what I might ever do with them. However, as time passed Route 66 did become a topic of national interest, and upon my retirement in 1997, I once again returned to record the Mother Road's artifacts. A number of my Yosemite series photographs are included in the Ansel and Virginia Adams collection at the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona at Tucson, and several of my Route 66 photographs and other subjects have been acquired by the Milwaukee Art Museum. At this time I am preparing a book of my photographic experiences along Route 66, from 1947 to the present. --Tom Ferderbar

"Curio Shop Entrance, New Mexico" is a color photograph printed on canvas and signed lower right by the artist, Thomas Ferderbar. It depicts a gray wall with fading painted decorations. Artwork Size: 55" x 37 3/4" Frame Size: 56" x 38 1/2" Artist Statement: "I wanted to become a photographer at the age of 12, when my sister Grace gave me a Kodak Box...

"Beauty Salon, Quapaw, OK" is a color photograph printed on paper signed lower right. The piece is titled and dated in the lower left in pencil. This phot...

'Homestead I', is the first in a sequence of abandoned buildings in the Californian High Desert, Wonder Valley The three part series is part of Richard Heeps' larger series 'Dream in...

'Homestead II', from a sequence of photographs of abandoned buildings in the Californian High Desert, Wonder Valley The three part series is part of Richard Heeps' larger series 'Dre...

Roadsign and Field is a stunning Color Photographic Print on Hahnemuhle Paper in an Edition of 20 in this size of 20" x 24". States of America is the photographic legacy of one of t...

'Roy's Motel Route 66', from Richard Heeps Dream in Color series. This view of Roy's Motel emphasises the space age Googie style of both the building and the iconic Motel sign. Take...