Jon Tonks


Jon Tonks is a British documentary photographer. He was awarded the Royal Photographic Society's Vic Odden Award in 2014 for his book Empire.

Early life and education

Tonks was born in Sutton Coldfield in the West Midlands on july 17th 1981. He studied design then worked as a local newspaper photographer. Later he earned an MA in Photojournalism & Documentary Photography from London College of Communication.

Life and work

Tonks' first book Empire is about four small far-flung territories that remain under British rule: Tristan da Cunha, Ascension Island, Saint Helena, and the Falkland Islands. Beginning in 2007, Tonks spent five years working on the project and travelled around 50,000 miles; he "spent a month in each territory, and over a month at sea getting to them". Sean O'Hagan, reviewing the book in The Observer, wrote that "Tonk mixes portraiture and documentary to show how important post-colonial tradition is to the survival of these communities and how their adherence to a kind of old-fashioned Britishness can make them seem culturally as well as geographically isolated in our increasingly globalised world." An accompanying text mixes historical fact and anecdote.

Publications

  • Empire. Stockport: Dewi Lewis, 2014. Photographs and text. Edition of 1000 copies..
  • *Second edition. Dewi Lewis, 2014..
  • The Men Who Would Be King. Stockport: Dewi Lewis, 2021. With Christopher Lord..

    Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions