Thomas Hodges was born in London, England, but has lived a major part of his life between East and Southeast Asia and France. He currently resides between Southern Italy and East Asia.
Thomas has always had an artistic streak, and was first introduced to photography by his Father (also a keen photographer) at around the age of 8. He has been taking photographs more-or-less ever since. He became a semi-professional photographer in 1984, working freelance primarily in fashion, during which time much of his work was published in a variety of fashion and beauty magazines.
He has worked both in and out of the studio, using a variety of equipment. In the year 2000, with the onset of the digital revolution, he adopted the digital medium exclusively. However, aside from basic post-processing in his digital darkroom, and excepting his photo-montage work, his images are captured almost exclusively within the lens, with no use of filters or special effects, despite the impression often given by the final image.
Thomas has an interesting and varied career history, having worked as a financial engineer in investment banking, whilst also pursuing a career in photography. In 2004 he left the world of financial services to dedicate himself to his life-long passion for photography and now works as a full-time photographic artist. Thomas has pioneered, and continues to pioneer a unique artistic style which he has termed “Imaginistic”, and in December 2006 he established a new art movement entitled “Imaginism”, in compliment to the existing poetic movement of the same name.
His work is not only limited to mounted photographic art, but extends also to interior design, using a variety of materials for the creation of furnishings and decorations, incorporating Thomas’ unique style of imagery. Although his portfolio of work remains quite varied, he is inspired by female beauty, which undoubtedly remains his main subject matter, capturing the sensuality and femininity of woman. He works primarily with natural light, preferring the latter to the constraints of the studio. He excels in the manipulation of light, and his trade-mark is undoubtedly the retention of movement within a static image, whilst often working at the extremes of both high-key and low-key photography. Although primarily focused on producing photographic artworks, Thomas also works to a limited degree as a commercial fashion photographer, with a particular interest in catalogue and advertising, where his artistic skills can often be put to interesting use.
Thomas’ images have been described as “surreal”, “manifesting within a dream” and even as “a gift from heaven ”. His work borders on “experimental”, focusing less on the subject and more on the formal aspects of the image, the light, movement and composition. In particular movement, which gives his images an intense atmosphere, masking the formal subject and replacing it with sensuality and suspense.
Although primarily self-taught, with no formal art qualifications per-say, he was awarded the title of “Spider Fellow” in 2006, having won prestigious “Nominee Awards” in both the 2006 and 2007 “Black and White Spider Awards”, and the 2006 and 2007 “International Color Awards”. He is currently working on two publications (one being his first monograph) both of which are scheduled for 2008. Thomas’ work is also included in the first volume of “The World’s Greatest Black & White Photography”, which will be published in Oct. / Nov. 2007.
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