Tom Andrews, Interpersonal
The void of the studio becomes a home where deep interpersonal relationships formed in households are put on display. Photographer Tom Andrew explores time, emotion and consciousness through fragmented moments found within compositions of conventional portraiture, in a body of work inspired by ‘Ego State Theory’, a concept that addresses how distinct patterns of thinking and feeling influence our behaviours and interactions.
The works present people Tom encounters in his daily life, photographed in groups or alone according to the situation they live in. Photographed with a long exposure under a sequence of strobe lights, each flash captures a unique moment, as fragmented pieces accumulate to form a symbolic, true self.
Various versions/ego states of individuals are contained within the layered depth of a single exposure. A still, meditative aura sits alongside expressive moments of laughter and agitation, as posture, body language, and facial expressions change and integrate.
Tom adopts an experimental printing process, deepening the search for an accumulated truth held within ego states. Details further bleed into one another with the colouration of the works evoking the feeling of stillness and introspection, experienced while under water.
‘Tom Andrew is a master at capturing the space in between movement, as shown expertly in INTERPERSONAL. To convey such energy through static imagery is a skill but to capture the beautiful, meditative stillness in such moments is a unique talent.’
Daniel Avery - Electronic music producer and DJ:
“Tom’s painterly approach to representing the figure tests conventional boundaries both literally and figuratively. His dynamic images demand our engagement as we discover the subject through multiple layers, vibrations which reject the static for the suggestion of movement and challenge the one-dimensional with the immediacy of interaction.”
Lucy Stopford - Artist
“In Tom Andrew's visually powerful INTERPERSONAL series, members of a single household float in a dark space. Each individual is captured not as a fixed entity but as a mutable range of possibilities. Like a choreographer, Andrew is interested in the relational overlaps of the dance in which we coexist.”
Catalina Renjofo - Artist
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Tom Andrew’s work focuses on ideas of movement, emotion, and consciousness. These themes are explored through experimental lighting and printing processes.
Tom began his career working as a photographic printer in darkrooms before stepping into the studio where he worked in the technical area of photography lighting design for the automotive industry. Later he gravitated towards subjects of greater interest to him, in portrait, fashion and music photography, where he’s become known for his ethereal approach to image-making.
For the last 5 years Tom’s artwork has been a response to a time of anxiety, during which he experienced periods of uncontrollable shaking. After a great deal of introspection to identify the source for the shaking, he came across a strobe light that visually evoked the intense feelings he experienced during this time. Within these visualised tremors, Tom is searching the myriad physical and psychological experiences that form an individual, creating imagery that examines the integration between conscious and subconscious worlds.
Tom Andrew Interpersonal
Magdalen Road Studios
74 Magdalen Road,
Oxford,
OX4 1RE
5–9 November
10am–6pm
Private View
Friday 7 November
6–8pm
