Programs: (Zoom) – Life with a Camera with Tommy Brown

Bio and Description

Tommy Brown graduated from college and informed his parents he was going to become a photographer; a ludicrous idea as he had never made a noteworthy picture. He saved money working in his dad’s machine shop and took off on a 5 month trip to Europe. This trip would determine the path of my life. It was do or die as he planned to make the pictures that would get him into a graduate art program (ridiculous considering he had not gone to art school as an undergrad). The urgency of this proposition is palpable in the images (some are included in his talk and below). And yes, he got into the MFA program at Yale, which was his long-shot at best.

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For years, he didn’t have a darkroom but he photographed obsessively. He’d develop his film at night, hold the negatives up to see if anything looked good, sleeve and store. Four decades later, he’s printing those images for the first time.

After graduating from Colgate, he received his MFA in photography from the Yale School of Art.

Tune in for his zoom he’ll explain what he’s come to understand about why and how he made these photographs.

All photos taken by Tommy Brown

COLLECTIONS:

His photographs are in numerous private and public collections including:

Munson Museum, Utica, NY

Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Collection Yale University

Yale University Art Gallery

Colby College Museum of Art

The Parrish Art Museum

Addison Gallery of American Art

Lightwork Collection Syracuse University

The Museum of the City of New York

Farnsworth Museum

Tang Museum, Skidmore College

Colgate University, Picker Art Gallery

He can be contacted at: www.tommybrown.com and via Instagram @tommybrownpictures.