Family Portait Profile

The Thomsen Family, Co-Owners of TEMA Contemporary Furniture

The story of Soren and Barbara Thomsen is an example of a great American success and love story. Soren came to the United States in 1983 from Denmark as a Business Exchange Student. After his time as a student was completed, he returned to the United States shortly thereafter and landed a job with Copenhagen Import in El Paso.

In 1987, while still living and working in El Paso, Soren met a young lady at a swimming pool named Barbara, who sold hot dogs from a hot dog cart. A year later they eloped while they were in Taos.

Benny Kjaer, owner of TEMA Contemporary Furniture and Milan RTA in Albuquerque asked Soren to become his sales manager in 1993. Soren and Barbara made the move to Albuquerque and over the next few years, Soren’s business acumen and hard work helped TEMA grow significantly. In 2000, Soren became a partner in the business.

TEMA Contemporary Furniture
What Makes Them Unique and Different?

TEMA provides furnishings from throughout the world with a European inspiration. In selecting furniture that he carries in his store, Soren says that it’s a very emotional and intuitive process. He searches the world for furniture that is innovative, unique, contemporary, but also affordable and provides a great value.

Currently, TEMA purchases their furniture from over 90 manufacturers, over half of whom are from North America. In addition to their home furnishings, they also own an Office Furniture USA franchise. This line provides competitively priced unique office furnishings that cannot be found at typical Office Supply stores.

Although many people think TEMA is a national chain because of their world class furnishings and service, TEMA is actually a New Mexico owned company with one location. Soren says that they want to make sure that their customers are happy and that they know TEMA will stand behind the furniture they sell. To find out more about TEMA, visit their website at Temafurniture.com or visit their store on Montgomery and Pennsylvania.

Kim Jew Photography Clients for Over 15 Years

Soren and Barbara have been clients of Kim Jew Photography ever since their son Ejler (now 15 and now a student at The AIMS Institute of Math and Science at UNM) was an infant. According to Barbara, “I like that we can put our own ideas into the session. One year I showed our photographer a black and white photo that I liked that had a heavy shadow on it and our photographer made a photo like that of our son.” Soren adds, “What I like is that you guys make people look pretty good even if they don’t look so good in real life.”

Soren and Barbara also like the new things that Kim Jew Photography is doing with creating a play environment and capturing images that are spontaneous and fun. “We had a real good time in our last photo shoot and there were some really good shots,” Soren said.