,

THOMAS GUST

SERIES

Costumes & Cherry Blossoms, Tokyo, 2025

Thomas Gust (*1972) explores themes such as memory, history, and urban life through a distinctive blend of photography and painting. This process transforms his images while simultaneously preserving their photographic essence and expanding the boundaries of the medium.

During his stay in Japan in 2025, the idea for a series was born that juxtaposes iconic Japanese pictorial elements, such as the cherry blossom, with portraits of the late 19th century and alters the prints through manual intervention using painting techniques.

In the series Costumes, staged studio portraits of geisha models are reworked using painting, thus transferring them into the present and a new artistic context. In everyday Japanese life, a geisha represents tradition, grace, and the complexity of human relationships. She is a mediator of cultural techniques. The portraits of women reworked here originally come from Japanese portrait studios of the late 19th century, where they were produced in large editions as so-called “travel photographs.” The images were offered as landscapes (views) and portraits (costumes). Through the colorful, overpainting intervention, a language of abstraction is developed, transforming the traditional photographic image into a new and contemporary presence.

The cherry blossoms in the series Cherry Blossoms, Tokyo, which bloom in delicate hues, stand in stark contrast to the calmer, almost melancholic presence of the female portraits in the series Costumes. The blossoms, shot at night and at dawn, glow almost graphically against the darkness, against the cool gray of morning. In Japanese culture, the cherry blossom is a powerful symbol of the transience of life. They bloom only for a short time, reminding us of the preciousness of the moment, and their transience alludes to death. The images, with their contemplative attitude and symbolic transience, can be understood as contemporary landscapes, as views.

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Mixed media: Acrylic paint on fine art print, Hahnemühle baryta paper
Size: 40 × 30 cm | Edition: 5
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All prints are signed and numbered on the back. Additional motifs are available upon request. If you are interested, please email us at info@buchkunst-berlin.de or call us directly at +49 30 21802540. We look forward to hearing from you and speaking with you.

SERIES
HONG KONG ROMANCE
since 2023

Thomas Gust explores themes such as memory, connection, and urban life in this series through a distinctive blend of photography and visual arts. During his stay in Hong Kong from 2023 to 2024, Gust develops a visually independent perspective on the city. He combines traditional photography with abstraction and manual interventions like overpainting. This process transforms his images while preserving their photographic essence and expanding the boundaries of the medium.

Inspired by the Romantic art movement, Gust integrates elements such as trees and floral motifs into the urban landscape of Hong Kong. In doing so, he connects art-historical compositions from the 19th century with expressive contemporary techniques. These works offer a novel, conceptually rich interpretation of Hong Kong, illuminating urban and natural landscapes in new ways and questioning conventional notions of photography.

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Mixed media: Acrylic paint on fine art print, Hahnemühle baryta paper
Size: approx. 60 × 40 cm | Image size: approx. 50 × 34 cm | Edition: 3

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All prints are signed and numbered on the back.

Additional motifs are available upon request. If you are interested, please email us at info@buchkunst-berlin.de or call us directly at +49 30 21802540. We look forward to hearing from you and speaking with you.

Thomas Gust Hong Kong Romance – VIEW ON BUILDINGS AT KING’S ROAD, QUARRY BAY, HONG KONG, 2024
FIRST VIEW FROM BONHAM ROAD, HONG KONG, 2025
BACKYARD ON YICK CHEONG BUILDING II, QUARRY BAY, HONG KONG, 2025
VIEW ON AUSTIN ROAD WEST & HARBOUR, HONG KONG, 2024
Thomas Gust Hong Kong Romance – VIEW FROM BONHAM ROAD AT NOON, HONG KONG, 2024
HOUSES ON PAN HOI STREET, QUARRY BAY, HONG KONG, 2024
Thomas Gust Hong Kong Romance – TREE ON KING’S ROAD II, QUARRY BAY, HONG KONG, 2025
Thomas Gust Hong Kong Romance – VIEW FROM BONHAM ROAD AT NIGHT, HONG KONG, 2024
Thomas Gust Hong Kong Romance – TREE ON KING’S ROAD I, QUARRY BAY, HONG KONG, 2024
Thomas Gust Hong Kong Romance – TREE ON KING’S ROAD III, QUARRY BAY, HONG KONG, 2025
YICK CHEONG BUILDING, KING’S ROAD, QUARRY BAY, HONG KONG, 2025
FORTRESS GARDENS, HONG KONG, 2024
BACKYARD AT YICK CHEONG BUILDING, KING’S ROAD, QUARRY BAY, HONG KONG, 2024
STRIPES 
VIEW ON POK FU LAM ROAD AT NIGHT, HONG KONG, 2024
VIEW ON AUSTIN ROAD WEST AND HARBOUR, HONG KONG, 2024
HOUSES ON PAN HOI STREET, QUARRY BAY, HONG KONG, 2024

SERIES
PEAK
2013–2017

The series PEAK depicts the failure of an ascent of Pik Kommunismus, the highest mountain of the former Soviet Union at 7,425 meters, by four climbers from East Berlin. The two women and two men disappear without a trace just before reaching the summit in the high mountains. The images show the ascent and the disappearance of the expedition. Their gazes blend with hallucinations of memory images from an unfinished past. The pictures, created through overlays of photographs and painterly elements, convey in a decelerated representation the failure of utopias and the collective amidst snow and ice.

In his photographic collages of overpaintings, multiple exposures, archival images, and his own visual material, Thomas Gust develops series that incorporate fictional and narrative moments as well as aspects of classical painting.

 

Peak Basis Camp
Marching Pioneers
Women by the Lake
Flute Girl

SERIES
FAMILY TREE
2014–2018

A journey of part of the photographer’s family across several generations and locations. A barely visible trace in the great movements of history, beginning in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. This path leads from the South Moravian region of the Czech Republic across Europe to Dresden and Budapest in the late 20th century. One hundred fifty years are represented through photographs that seem equally timeless. When visiting the places where the protagonists lived, these traces, their names, and homes have disappeared. Only the trees remain; they have also become part of the series.

Dream of the Lake
 
Home (Light Study)
Brothers
Blue Boy
 

BIO

THOMAS GUST

1972
Born in Bautzen, Germany.

1989–1993
Education as a typeface and graphic designer at the School ‘John-Heartfield’ in Berlin-Wandlitz.

1998–2004
Studied stage design at the Art School Berlin-Weißensee.

2004–2005
Stage design assistant at the Burgtheater, Vienna, Austria.

Since 2004
Engaged in freelance work and exhibitions in the field of photography and photo-based art.

Since 2016
Guest lecturer on photography and photography books at various institutions, including:

  • University of Fine Arts, Berlin, Germany
  • International Center of Photography (ICP), New York, USA
  • UCR John Ruskin, Cambridge, UK
  • University of Hong Kong (HKU)
  • Ostkreuz School of Photography, Berlin, Germany

Since 2018
Co-founded the publishing house “Buchkunst Berlin” with Ana Druga, focusing on the creative and conceptual development of photo books.

Since 2020
Established the photo gallery “Buchkunst Berlin” and expanded work in the field of photography exhibitions.

Exhibitions

  • 2011

    • ‘Black Baroque’, solo exhibition at Staatsgalerie Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin, Germany.
    • ‘Sauber ist anders’, exhibition with Johannes Jansen at Staatsgalerie Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin, Germany.

  • 2012

    • ‘Off the Bone’, group exhibition at Künstlerhaus Neues Bethanien, Berlin, Germany, with Richard Mosse.
    • ‘The Gardens of Dementia’, solo exhibition at Staatsgalerie Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin, Germany.

  • 2013

    • ‘Ball Of The Burning Men’, solo exhibition at Staatsgalerie Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin, Germany.
    • ‘Die Heimsuchung’, group exhibition at Galerie Knut Hartwich, Sellin / Rügen, Germany.

  • 2018

    • ‘Peak Communism’ at Fotohaus Paris-Berlin, Arles / Les Recontres D’Arles, alongside Robert Rauschenberg (presented by gallery Franzkowiak), France.

  • 2022

    • ‘Family Tree’, solo exhibition at gallery Buchkunst Berlin, Germany.

  • 2025

    • ‘Hong Kong Poetry’, group exhibition at Blue Lotus gallery with Fan Ho, Palani Mohan, and Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze, Hong Kong.