Interview: Tom Bradley

Interviews

15 Dec

Today we have the pleasure of sharing some of the work of one of our good friends Tom Bradley.

Tom has spent over 12 years working as a documentary photographer, producing many long term social and health-related projects with NGOs. He has studied and gone on to assist at the renowned Pathshala Institute in Bangladesh. He’s also a lovely chap to have a few beers and talk photography with.

We’re lucky to have him on the blog today to share some beautiful work and insightful words. We’ll let him take care of the rest :)

How had the Pandemic Impacted Your Practice / Daily Life?

At first it seemed quite bleak. I had some workshops and trips planned (most of my work is abroad) that were immediately cancelled. However, during that first lockdown I used it to delve into my archive of leprosy images (there's close to half a million since 2009). In June 2020 I had a bit of an existential work crisis, and I started questioning the ethics of my work in new ways (something I'd been aware of for most of my career as a white male Brit working mainly in countries formerly colonised by Europeans). Though that was painful, it helped me re-evaluate what I've done, as well as shape how I want to continue (despite this being the case for many years). Though I had little work, the government SEISS grants for freelancers came through which was enough to survive, so in many ways I was very fortunate that I had the luxury to spend this time concentrating on personal work.

This year I've rethought through everything again, and am shifting my long-term goal so there's less pressure to earn money from photography, but instead continue the personal work part-time along with something. I'm actually considering training to be a therapist of some sort which I'm hoping could also tie nicely into my documentary work.

So Tell Us A Bit About Yourself

My name's Tom Bradley, I'm a freelance photographer. Most of what I do could be considered documentary, but this also includes aspects of street photography, art, collage, as well as more reportage-like practices. When I first picked up a camera it helped me see the world in a different way - the joy of composition gave me an interest in everything all around me, and in a strange way (considering photographs are essentially about the past), helped me live in the present. That's still the case today, though I think I also have an interest in the change and legacy that photos and photo stories create too. I photograph a range of things, but one topic that I've been looking at since the beginning (in 2009), that I'm hoping to continue for the rest of my life, is leprosy.

Are You Working On Anything At The Moment?

I'm still going through archives and slowly organising the (close-to a) million images in my archive. So there was an outlet for these works I set up two instagram accounts: @isleprosyeliminated for the leprosy work and @jaflongtour for a project about stone miners. I try and post daily, which keeps me busy and gives me something regular to do. But I've always had quite a lot of personal projects to work on (I think it's 7 currently!), so I've used the time to really get to grips with them. However, I'm getting bits more work and I am hoping to travel again soon - COVID allowing.

How Have You Used Photography To Improve Your Mental And Emotional Wellbeing? Any Advice For Others?

Connection with people is one of the things in this world I value the most, and so keeping in touch with friends regularly on zoom (one on one or groups of three is best) has helped massively. It's partly these deep connections and listening to and sharing ourselves in a very intimate way that has led me onto potentially training to be a therapist. Alongside that I've also been meditating a lot more recently - I've always been quite spiritual but never really set up that routine before. I love doing it now. I've also tried not to look at my phone after 9pm and give that time to reading fiction.

However I still photograph all the time from my phone (@tombradleyphoto on instagram), and this has always been a great joy to sift through images at the end of the week and see what snapshots of the ordinary and less ordinary I've got that I can put online.

More and more I'm understanding that as I peel back layers of my past that have made me who I am, and come to terms with them, the better equipped I am to fully embrace life, and more fully explore what it means to photograph. It is, and I suspect always will be a work in progress, but I think I'm better off for it.