Tom Patterson

One of the nice things about editing work is that I get to know people I wouldn't have otherwise, or in Tom Patterson's case, I'd only met him a couple times in passing. So I looked at his work with a fresh eye. We set out to hone his portfolio in advance a trip to show work in New York.

As is often the case, it's as if there two people making pictures in the group of around 2,000 pictures we looked at. There's the person who in Tom's case, makes pictures that meet the needs of a daily newspaper, and then there's the Tom who makes these lyrical expressions. I see this time and again where photographers have to curtail their way of seeing to meet largely informational demands of a given publication or client.

I was looking at an Italian photographer's work yesterday. Same thing in a different language. Two ways of making pictures, one body.

These two photos that Tom made are from his lyrical side. Both of them were made on his own time. Above, Tom volunteered to make pictures at an orphanage in India, and below is a scene from a trip to London. Proximity to the subject, being close helps a feeling of connectivity in the one and drawing back and letting an entire scene speak creates a painterly feel in the other.

They share repetition of shapes, a precise color pallete, high moment values, appropriate quality of light and a composition that conveys the feeling of the setting and uses the entire frame.

Moment value needs defining. If you can say of a photograph, this only happened once, it has a high moment value. We often think in terms of a ball hitting a bat, a plane as it crashes as being unique moments. The intersection of paddles in the punting scene is just as precise a moment.

Portfolio edits can take many forms that vary depending on the photographer's body of work, the function and venue for the portfolio and other factors. In Tom's case, we chose about 30 photographs that had the greatest combinations of the five qualities I mention above and sequenced them in a way that best presented his way of seeing.

The goal was to sell the idea that Tom can make interesting pictures, regardless of the setting. You hire him for his way of seeing. And is that the best reason, after all?