Agave Parryi

Thomson typically signed and titled his photographs on verso.

Believe Agave Parryi was part of a series of succulent plants recorded for the Phoenix Botanical Gardens.

(Born 1948) A New Englander by birth, J. Barry Thomson began his career in photography while a student at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts.

A self-taught photographer, he has extensively photographed the landscapes of the Southwest and the Northeast, principally in Arizona, Vermont, Utah, Wyoming and Oregon.  Thomson published a book on his images of the Grand Canyon, titled The Enchanted Light published by the Museum of Northern Arizona Press in 1979.

Thomson's works are included in the following public collections:  Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover, Massachusetts; Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, AZ; St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Arts in Florida; the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Huntington Museum in San Marino, California.  Corporate collections hosting his photographs include the Bank of America, Banc One and American Express in Phoenix, Arizona; Amoco Oil in Houston, Texas and AMFAC's El Tovar Hotel at the Grand Canyon.

Thomson completed a suite of photographs commissioned by the Phelps Dodge Corporation in Phoenix, AZ.  The resulting large format black and white images met the criteria of fine art, while depicting highly original and unorthodox aspects of copper mining.