Jon Tonks

This exciting young documentary photographer talks about prospering and getting published in 2016 with Geoff Harris.

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How did you become a documentary photographer? I initially studied product design for my first degree between in 2000 to 2003. There were some add-on courses on photography, including darkroom skills, and that got me started.

I kept photography up after graduating and did some travelling. I sent some images to a travel magazine competition, and one was selected for exhibition, which struck a chord. After that I did a bit of assisting work, which I didn’t really enjoy, before freelancing and then working full-time on a local newspaper. 

What lessons did you learn on the newspaper? It was a big learning curve; I had no formal training in photography and had to pick things up as I went along. I’d be doing six to eight jobs a day, and couldn’t come back empty handed. There’s no time to reccent locations, and you had to think on your feet and be creative to achieve a result in a sometimes pressured situation.

You then went back to college to do an MA in photojournalism – why? I wanted to broaden my horizons, and felt the newspaper didn’t offer that opportunity. For me, my interest in photography often revolves around travelling to new places (and sometimes getting paid for it as well).

I was still pretty new to the photography world when I started the course, but early influences for me were people like Alec Soth, Stephen Shore, Tony Ray-Jones and Martin Parr. The course at the London College of Communication was great, and I met a good group of peers who I still keep in touch with now. I think that it’s important to have a friendship group within this industry: it can become a lonely occupation if you’re not careful.