We first showed Tomanova’s works in our 2020 group exhibition, On the Inside: Portraiture Through Photography. Her refreshing take on New York City youth culture was initially the result of her own desire to make friends as a newly transplanted NYC resident, back in 2012. Since then, she has photographed hundreds of young people, enough to fill two books with intimate and engaging portraits that evoke a complex mix of toughness and tenderness.

Her first book, Young American, published in 2019, contained an introduction by celebrated American photographer, Ryan McGinley. Her recently published book with art historian Thomas Beachdel, New York New York (Hatje Cantz), features a foreword by culture icon Kim Gordon.

Tomanova says: “This work is about New York City as a landscape of youth and a portrait of place—entwining person and environment. It is about places and people I have met here and the magic we found together. It is about discovering and expressing our identity or identities. It is about the beautiful fluidity of identity and experience. It is us. It is about being free to be yourself. It is about being with others. It is about New York City as a place of becoming. And it is about togetherness and the power of being together—connecting.”