Thomas L. Carr

Thomas Carr (born July 17, 1964) is an American archaeologist and photographer who has studied the intersection of anthropology and art with an emphasis on the abandonment of human built environments in the natural landscape.

His academic work has been published in journals such as Archaeological Prospection and Colorado Heritage Magazine.

He has lectured extensively on archaeology, photography, visual ethnography, and historic preservation.

His photographic work in the Rocky Mountains region has been the subject of several major exhibitions and numerous group and juried exhibitions.

The Western History and Genealogy Department of the Denver Public Library holds a collection of Carr's photographs in its permanent archives.

Thomas Lee Carr was born on July 17, 1964, in Toledo, Ohio to Thomas Foster Carr and Marion Lee Carr.

It started with the discovery of buried toys in the backyard of his childhood home in North Carolina that Carr had purposely buried in the 1970s when he was a teenager.

Carr had forgotten about the toys until their discovery.

He used these various toy artifacts to create works of art and wrote several professional archaeological papers about the experience.

The family moved to Charlotte, North Carolina in 1974, and in 1979 Carr joined the Light Factory, a photographic arts education organization in Charlotte.

In 1981 and 1982 a number of his early works were exhibited in Scholastic Arts exhibitions, and he received several Gold Key awards and a nomination for the Kodak Medallion of Excellence.

In 1982 Carr was recognized by the National Endowment for Advancement in the Arts (dbi YoungArts) as a Promising Young Artist in Visual Arts.

From 1984 to 1992 Carr attended undergraduate college at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and studied photography and anthropology.

During this time, he participated in numerous photography exhibitions and held his first solo exhibition in 1984 titled Winter Scenes from McAlpine Park at the Queens College (now Queens University of Charlotte).

A profile of Carr and his photographic work was the subject of a feature article in the spring 1985 edition of Sanskrit Magazine.

From 1993 to 1996 Carr attended graduate college at the University of Colorado at Boulder and earned a Master of Arts in Anthropology.

Carr's MA thesis was published in 1996 in the international peer review journal "Archaeological Prospection".

The results of the research received national and international press coverage, including articles in the Denver Post, Earth Magazine, and the Christian Science Monitor.

After receiving his MA in 1996, Carr worked on a variety of archaeological projects in Idaho, Indiana, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, and Utah.

He also served as the instructor of record for courses in North American Archaeology and Archaeological Methods at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Between 1998 and 2000 Carr produced and directed an ethnohistoric film titled A Forgotten Place.

The subject of the film was the Robinson Rock House Ruin and Plantation Site at the Reedy Creek Park, in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.

The emphasis of the film was an effort to understand the process by which historic places are abandoned and rediscovered.

The film was premiered in 2000 at the Charlotte Museum of History.

From 2001 to 2015 Carr worked as a staff archaeologist with State Historical Society of Colorado (dba History Colorado).

During this time, he worked on a number of archaeological projects and continued to photograph significant historical places and natural landscapes.

Around 2002 Carr, joined the Colorado Photographic Arts Center in Denver, Colorado, where he served as a board member from 2006 to 2008.

The Center also holds one of his photographs in its permanent collection.

The film was subsequently screened at two film festivals - the 2003 Kineon 5th International Festival of Archaeological Film, Brussels, Belgium, and in 2004, at the Archaeology Channel International Film Festival, Eugene, Oregon.

The film was also purchased by a number of university libraries and anthropology departments for educational purposes.

The film continues to be hosted by The Archaeology Channel's web-streaming site.

In 2003 he was invited to write an article for Colorado Heritage Magazine about the common histories of archaeology and photography.

Around 2008 Carr undertook a study of his own personal history, title Excavating Childhood: the archaeology of self.

In 2015, he was invited to write an article for Colorado Heritage Magazine and his story was featured on Colorado Public Radio.

Since 2021, Carr works as the Cultural Resource Team Lead/Senior Archaeologist for AECOM.

In 2016 Carr was invited by YoungArts to participate in a collaborative art project called Transformations.

Carr collaborated with filmmaker Kayla Briët and animator/dancer Isabela Dos Santos.

Their film was titled Solitude, Darkness, Light, and was premiered in Miami, Florida.

In 2017 and 2018 the film was screened at a number of film festivals including NFFTY 2017 in Seattle, Washington, Sans Souci Festival of Dance in Cinema 2017 in Boulder, Colorado, the 2018 Durango Independent Film Festival in Durango, Colorado, the 2018 Solaris Film Festival in Nice, France.

In 2017, two of Carr's images from the film were included in a YoungArts photography alumni exhibition title "Enlighted".