For Immediate Release (Sept 9, 2010)

According to Wikipedia, ‘Mankind has practiced pigeon keeping for about 10,000 years in almost every part of the world’ – who would have guessed that this could be probable on the rooftops of Brooklyn. Thomas Murphy met a group of neighbors in the Spring of 2009 when he moved into an apartment adjacent to a pigeon coop. Mesmerized by a flock of up to 500 or so pigeons, Murphy formed a friendship with the pigeon flyer, only to uncover an underground subculture of pigeon fanciers.Talking to this group of men aged from 50 to 70 years old, visiting a number of local rooftops, Murphy explored a friendship as a means of garnering a first hand understanding of this dying past time. Under threats from a new generation who deem flying pigeons as ‘uncool’ combined with increased costs and new residents moving to buildings distasteful of this movement, the pigeon fancier community demanded to be preserved as a slice of Brooklyn history.

Thomas Murphy has chosen to exhibit a series of 24 images to represent over a years worth of documented encounters; each are sized at 12 x 18. Only two larger images are printed at 24 x 36, both of which, for him center the collection as the most powerful portraits of the story. The full body of work encapsulates the rapture of a hidden if not unknown example of man’s relationship with nature.

Exhibition Details

Thomas Murphy
“Above Brooklyn”
Sept. 17 – Oct. 3, 2010
Opening Reception: Friday, September 17th, 7-10pm

About Thomas Murphy

Thomas Anthony Murphy was born in New Jersey in 1978, and currently resides in Brooklyn, New York. His two great passions in life are travel and photography. Holding a strong passion for the arts since he was a young child Murphy fell in love with photography at a young age yet only re-ignited this love affair following a 10 year professional career in the design field. Self-taught, distressed at corporate life, he picked up his camera only to travel for 7 months to places Hong Kong, Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Burma, shooting every day and solidifying his relationship with this visual medium. Through his photography, Thomas seeks to document his own personal experiences by capturing scenes and events as he sees them, to share with others the beauty and sometimes ugliness of the world he’s seen. As the images of other photographers have inspired him to explore the world, he hopes his own contributions will inspire others to do the same.
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