Thomas Roma

Who is Thomas Roma?

Thomas Roma is an American photographer who has worked almost exclusively since 1974 exploring the neighborhoods and institutions of his native Brooklyn, photographing scenes from churches, subways and everyday life, using a homemade camera.

Roma is currently a Full Professor at Columbia University's School for the Arts, and the Director of the Photography Department which he founded. He has also taught photography at Yale University, Fordham University, The Cooper Union, and The School of Visual Arts.

He has been awarded two Guggenheim Fellowships and his work has appeared in one-person and group exhibitions, including one-person shows with accompanying books at the Museum of Modern Art and the International Center of Photography in New York City.

His work is featured in numerous collections, including The Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal.

For one of his collections of photographs, titled Come Sunday, Roma attended more than 150 religious services at 52 churches in Brooklyn over a period of three years.