What inspires Tom Franks is beautiful landscapes, and interesting real-life characters. His particular interest is portraiture, which he shoots for advertising clients and has shot portraits for campaigns for AEG power tools, Mizuno sports clothing and the Salvation Army Red Shield Appeal.
Franks came to photography from a career in engineering. After nearly a decade of working long hours on mining and infrastructure projects, from Western Australia to New Zealand, he decided to change his career. His new path was to move to Toronto, Canada, and try and get a job as a photographic assistant.
Franks says he had no formal photographic training, but after much persistence, photographer Hasnain Dattu agreed to meet him. Franks recalls that they chatted for a while and then Dattu decided to test his technical ability. He handed over a c-stand, upside down, and asked Franks to assemble it. “I laughed and asked him if it was a portable hat rack,” Franks says. “Needless to say, I failed the test miserably. But that was it, my photographic career was born.”
Advertising shoots became the true interest for Franks. “I loved the technicality of the [advertising] shoots,” he says. “Lots of lights, massive locations and only a handful of shots to be completed in a day, but to the highest standard. I realised that was what I wanted to do with my career.”
After more than three years in the industry, Hell Studios in Melbourne offered him representation in 2014. Drawn to cinematic lighting, bold compositions and dynamic environments, Franks plans to continue on an upward path by shooting high quality tests to promote his work.
He also claims a ‘slightly’ warped sense of humour, which is evident in some of the quirky portraits he loves to shoot and the analysis he offers of his style. “I’d love to speak of my influences being as diverse as Wittgenstein and L Ron Hubbard,” he says, tongue firmly in cheek, “but that would just be arty nonsense.”
www.tomfranksphoto.com