In his series Eternity, Christopher Thomas dedicates himself over the course of fifteen years to photographing artificial flowers found in cemeteries across Europe, Africa and the United States. These plastic flowers, created as lasting symbols of remembrance, are themselves subject to decay. Their colours fade, their forms deteriorate, and it is precisely in this transformation that an unexpected beauty emerges.
Christopher Thomas is known for a quiet and distinctive visual language, through which a deeply personal perception of the world is transformed into images of striking stillness and atmosphere. The photographs combine a subtle painterly sensibility with a strong sense of presence. Themes such as time, memory and transience unfold in
poetic and contemplative compositions.
SERIES ETERNITY
The photographs demonstrate that even massproduced plastic kitsch can, through time and weather, acquire and radiate a beauty of its own. Eternity thus becomes a silent meditation on the limits of human creation and the futile desire for permanence.
PHILOSOPHY
Thomas’s work questions the relationship between nature and imitation, the boundaries of life and death, and our understanding of time. Humanity attempts to impose order on the incomprehensible through religion, science and art. Yet, as the plastic flower reveals, every idea of permanence ultimately proves to be an illusion.
The series invites viewers to discover beauty where it is often overlooked. Everything that exists – whether natural or artificial – is part of the same cycle. In this sense, Eternity becomes a gentle reminder of the equal value of all things and of the quiet poetry of decay.
FORM AND STYLE
The photographs are characterised by painterly compositions and subtle tonalities. With a contemplative approach and a delicate use of light, Thomas creates images of quiet beauty, rich atmosphere and gentle melancholy. Decay is not concealed but revealed as an aesthetic element — an expression of time, dignity and transformation.