Photographer Research - Tom Chambers

Tom Chambers automatically caught my eye when I was doing my research. I soon became impressed in his work and quickly fell in love with the way he uses the topic of Photomontage to produce surreal images. Each photomontage is carefully constructed, they specifically address the fragility of childhood or the delicate stages of a child growing up from an adolescents and into adulthood. 

"Since 1998 Tom has devoted himself to photo montage for sharing intriguing unspoken stories about spirituality, personal identity, and co-existence."

This image portrays the human body in a consciousness mind, the woman is floating therefore relaxed and dreaming. The paintings show a historic era, contrasting to the sepia filter used to demonstrate the time. The lighting shining on the woman makes her the main subject in the image, because it is coming from the top right corner it almost seems as if its the moon light shining on her. The other objects in the room such as the bed's frame links to the picture frames as a classical era. The green sheets links to the peacefulness of the body and soul of the woman.

This image shows the path a young girl would take through life, the path goes straight into a dark abyss of castles and birds that look like crows. It can represent the struggle of life. The white dress she's wearing could represent her purity and innocence as she is a young child. Her hands waving and her bare feet running out into the open path of life itself couldn't seem more scarier as she hasn't noticed what lies ahead of her. The lighting used is flowing straight to the girl, but fading and blurring out into the background making it seem like fog and Chambers has done this deliberately in order to hide what's ahead.

Now this image can give mixed emotions, as there is a girl in a small hut. She seems to be hiding from the hounds but if you notice carefully, only one of the canine animals is interested in her, and that is the one on the left of the hut. I think that this portrays the dangers in life for a vulnerable child. Some dangers you might not notice as they go past you but may come back to haunt you, some dangers will come looking straight for you. The hut is on green grass while it is set on a field with dying crops representing some sort of shelter. The girl's dress is a light blue, contrasting to the dark yellow sky showing she is the endangered hope.

This image could portray life and death. As the girl is holding her arms out feeling the air and looking at the view, which has been purposely hidden from us, however it could also show death and her wanting to end her life by jumping down the slope or cliff, thus taking in her last breath of air and feeling the wind run through her hair before jumping. The light doesn't shine at her, but at the building behind her, showing that she has no hope or she's ran away from hope; it removes her as the main object however she's seems to be the most eye catching object in the image.

Overall, this photographer is extremely talented. His ideas are unique and the way in which he portrays them is absolutely amazing. His use of techniques to portray a historic era in every single picture, this gives his work an ancient feeling to it, bringing out the curiosity in his viewers and keeping them interested. This makes his work unpredictable and original each time he produces a new photograph, keeping his work fresh and new.

This photographer has influenced me through his use of mysterious creatures and scenes to show adventure and danger. His techniques are consistent in each of his work and this is great to add his signature. The effects are sort of sepia like in most of his photographs and this further adds to the mystery of his work. I really enjoy how he choses to shoot his images in background that represent historic eras; this once again, adds to the mystery as his viewers can never be too sure what really happened in the past.

I do realise that this picture of mine looks nothing like the work of Chambers but the same methods have been used to highlight the theme of mystery and danger. In my picture, the faces of my subject is not shown, Chambers also does this as he does not want the viewer to focus on his subject's looks but rather on the situation. I have decided to use this technique here to achieve the same objective; I wanted the viewers to focus on the danger the girl is in as she has no clue what is going on behind her, rather than her face. 

In summary, I think this photographer is great at keeping his techniques similar and using them each time but to explore different ideas. The sepia-like filter used in his work is a great way to sign off his pictures as well as adding a mystical theme to each photograph.