The Man, The Myth, The Legend
For those, who don't know much about me. I am Tom Wilkins. I am 35 and live in Cardiff with my wife and 2 young boys.
I am a relative late bloomer into the world of photography, having only picked up a camera for the first time in April of this year - and even that was only because I was bored and my wife had an old camera laying around on a shelf gathering dust! In the past, I have been known to pick up a hobby and throw myself into it before spectacularly quitting a month later - photography is the first time that that has not happened and I am hooked!
So why do I do what I do?
I started off going down the standard route that most photographers take when they want to take photos of people, and contacted loads of TFP models to arrange shoots. It was during one of these shoots that I had my first stranger interaction and from that moment on I was hooked. That first interaction with a punk near Cardiff Bay left me with such a warm feeling I could not forget about it.
Being someone who has always been a bit alternative/ skater/ surfer, I knew that to do this properly, I had to focus on the people that I find cool. For me it is not about beauty or the natural appearance of someone, it is about what they have done to make them look a certain way. That can be piercings, tattoo's, fashion choices or even hair choices.
A lot of alternative people can suffer with issues with their self-confidence, especially when pushing the boundaries in how they dress or show themselves to the world. That is why this is so important to me. It gives me the ability to lift people up and empower then through telling them they look cool. For me, there is nothing more powerful that I could choose to do with my photography - I receive countless messages from the people I photograph on the street to tell me this and this motivates me to carry on. I am on a one man quest to normalise compliment giving!
To let everyone into a not very well kept secret, my photography doesn't just lift others up, it has had a powerful impact on my own issues and struggles. Believe it or not, I suffer with quite debilitating social anxiety (I know hard to imagine with how I approach people now!). Doing the stranger portraits has enabled me to push myself out of my comfort zone and given me the motivation to work on myself. The results have been incredible. I can now put myself in social situations that I would not have dreamed of before. So to everyone, who has been a part of this journey, whether on the street when I have snapped you or on the socials bigging me up and showing my work the love it has received, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart! Every single one of you is a hero in my opinion!
Help keep my work alive with a small donation!
What equipment do I use to do the stranger Portraits?
I shoot with a Canon 6D MKII and a 50m 1.8 prime lens. I use Meta Glasses to record the interaction and then I edit it all on the Meta Edits app.
What's next?
I have a lot of plans in the pipeline. I am getting close to 10,000 followers on IG now, which will enable me to offer subscription packages, and I have a lot of plans in place for that. Choosing to do a type of photography that doesn't pay the bills, but fills my mental well being cup has left me pretty skint - So I am currently putting a number of plans in place to start being able to earn an income from this. I have just started the first stage of this and after many requests, I have finally started selling my Lightroom Presets as a package ( You can get them here!).
I have also just started to explore the many other cities and towns in the UK, Having visited; Swansea, Merthyr, Bristol, Worcester, Birmingham and Hereford in the past few weeks. I want to continue to do this as funds allow me to.
Watch me talk about my work in the documentary made by Camera Centre UK