Alys Tomlinson is a British photographer. She has published the books Following Broadway, Ex-Voto, Lost Summer and Gli Isolani. For Ex-Voto she won the Photographer of the Year award at the 2018 Sony World Photography Awards.
Alys grew up in Brighton and studied English Literature and Communications at the University of Leeds. After graduating, she moved to New York for a year and was given her first commission for Time Out, before returning to London to study photography at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. She recently completed a part-time MA in Anthropology of Travel, Tourism and Pilgrimage (Distinction) at SOAS, University of London, which ties in with her long-term, personal project about pilgrimage.
Alys Tomlinson’s work is very minimalistic and vey detailed, the backgrounds are filled with details and different surroundings which makes the photo stand out a lot more, if I were to compare this artist to jimmy Nelson I would say that nelson made the models more detailed whether it was to do with their culture, they made the background quite plain and simple to add more contrast to the person however Tomlinson made sure to do the opposite of that, she made the model look more simple but added a detailed background whether the model was standing in front of trees, houses or fences. I really like what Tomlinson has done to the photo making it black and white which makes it more modern effect can also effect the mood of the photo some would say they look quite sad as most of them aren’t smiling and are looking the camera with natural look. Another thing that I quite like that Tomlinson has done is that in a few of her photos she has blurred the background so that the focus is on the model and the model only. However the ones where the background isn’t blurred still looks good although there is less in the background, which makes the model instantly pop out.
PHOTO ANALYSIS.
This photo looks very different to the artists other photographs since the model is standing quite far away from the camera. which helps us visualise her surroundings, but the model looks very unusual which draws attention to the viewers as to why she may be standing in the middle of the woods, it almost creates a background story to the photo as if the model was lost or maybe they were forced to stand there. The model creates a mysterious energy, as well as the photo being black and white, this makes the mood and tone so different almost as if there is something out in the woods that’s making a lot of noise, it doesn’t seem like a peaceful environment, possible water running or the trees swaying in the wind.
The quality of your analysis and interpretation of Alys Tomlinson’s work is improving, but try and provide more contextual insights into her practice and methods. For example, when analysing key images make use of the image analysis sheet: Technical/ Visual/ Contextual/ Conceptual more explicitly. You should choose 2 things from each category and use that as a structure in your image analysis
https://www.photopedagogy.com/photo-literacy.html