I have loved photography since I was a kid (at twelve I saved for a beautiful little Konica rangefinder). When I have a camera in my hand I feel like my senses are heightened and I am suddenly more aware of the light, color, shapes, and patterns around me. I still feel that way today, and I hope it shows in my images.
-TOM
Recently…
I traveled to Nicaragua with Global Health Exchanges, a nonprofit based in Alaska that takes medical and dental professionals (and other volunteers) to the Central American country twice a year to provide important healthcare to areas where it is desperately needed. In addition to taking photos I am working on a film that the organization can use to communicate their mission and hopefully bring more support for the good work that they are doing.
In preparation for the trip I asked for help in this space with a GoFundMe campaign so that I could go into this project with some essential pieces of gear that I lacked, and I am happy and so grateful to report I found the help I needed. To those that donated you have my heartfelt thanks and appreciation. To see more photos and better understand this work, please visit these galleries on my Flickr account.
Nueva Vida Clinic. El Porvenir Clinic. Being Tourists.
Old Dogs and New Tricks
The advent of digital photography, followed by the hybrid cameras that allowed photographers to expand into high quality videography has kept the work interesting and challenging, and made possible a whole new level of storytelling.
The video below was literally more than a year in the making. As the primary videographer capturing the start-to-finish creation of a commissioned totem pole by artist and friend Duane Pasco for Seattle based company Saltchuk, I filmed Duane’s work from the milling of the log to the crane installation of the finished piece through the roof of a nine story building on Seattle’s waterfront. The interview segments and the editing was the work of YUIT Communications of Anchorage, Alaska. A longer version of this film plays in a permanent installation at the base of the totem at Saltchuk.