About
Thomas is the author of the books The Business of Fine Art Photography, Routledge, New York, The Fashion Image for Bloomsbury Publishing, London, and Twenty One Summers, co-authored with Microsoft Search and AI team leader Derrick Connell, Chasing Beauty Publishing. He is also an Editor at Large for IRKmagazine, a Paris based print publication and website, Board Member for the Santa Fe CENTER for Photographic Art, Founder of Chasing Beauty Publishing, and past Photography Program Director at Parsons School of Design in New York. He is the former owner of Thomas Werner Gallery in Manhattan’s Chelsea Art District, and a former National Board member and New York Chapter President for the American Society of Media Photographers. As well as a former Advisory Board Member for Ithaca College’s Executive Education Program, contributor to Adobe’s Lightroom Academy, and a photography consultant for COACH, among others. As an exhibiting artist Thomas was represented by galleries in New York and Los Angeles, and his work reviewed in The New Yorker Magazine.
Werner led a team developing a media and literacy website for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations/UNESCO and was a recurring instructor for the United Nations Education First Summer School. From 2005 – 2019 he worked with the United States Department of State on cultural projects in Russia partnering with 32 cultural, educational, and governmental organizations to develop projects in 29 cities. Partners have included; The State Hermitage Museum, the National Center of Contemporary Art, Perm Regional Government, The Moscow Biennale for Young Art, National Centre of Photography for the Russian Federation, The Central State Archive of Film, Photographic and Phonographic Documents, The Moscow Biennale, and others. His private collection of Russian photographs and artifacts have been exhibited internationally.
Currently a creative consultant, Thomas works one on one with students, creatives, businesses, cultural institutions, and not for profits, helping them with career development, career transition, team management, innovation, education, and the development of effective communication across multiple media platforms.
Thomaswernerprojects.com
@Thomaswernerprojects IG
Featured Work
Twenty One Summers
Twenty One Summers explores the amount of time we have in life, the goals we hope to achieve, and the Blind Spots that often unknowingly keep us from reaching them. It is a guidebook, a pathway or way of living that offers valuable insights, inspiring readers to take the first step toward bringing positive change to their lives and those of others. These changes, goals, and dreams, are their Twenty One Summers.
The concept for Twenty One Summers came from years of working with students at a university in New York, the moments Derrick and Thomas faced after graduating from college, a time when everything and nothing seemed possible, and the challenges and successes faced throughout their careers. They found that similarities existed in the worlds of art and technology and the careers of those who succeeded or struggled as they worked to build successful lives and careers.
The book is brought to life through 17 stories that illustrate the challenges faced and successes achieved by people like the reader, and those they aspire to be. This is a diverse group of people, including the authors, from varied international backgrounds who have made the decision to change their lives in big ways and small with a profound impact on their future and their communities. Though following extraordinarily different paths we found that each has applied a similar process as they work toward their goals.
Practical Strategies and processes from individual’s personal lives, and the worlds of art and technology, are provided to help the reader identify and overcome Blind Spots as they realize their Twenty One Summers during any phase of life.
