As a fine art photographer in Southern Alberta, Tom’s gelatin silver print photographs offer a view of the region over time. His strong technical expertise, from compositional arrangement, to taking photographs, and working through the darkroom processes, is evident in his inherent, deliberate compositions. Expressive, and creative, while in unison with the landscape, there is a pureness in each image that is characteristic of his skill. Over the years, Tom has attained a continuity in his perspective by rendering a timeless quality, more often sensed by the viewer than consciously articulated by the photographer. Elegant and still, yet decisive and responsive, his images offer glimpses of the eternal.

 

“My sense of myself is inseparable from the land. My photographs have no purpose, no intention, beyond the truthful expression of my own inner vision, reflections of human experience and the natural landscape. A quality of art is its simultaneous expression of particular and universal. For each of us, the expressive print will hold its own particular meaning and beauty.”

 

A native of southern Alberta, Tom Willock has been photographing the land and the animals of Southern Alberta for close to forty years, over thirty years in medium and large format. A graduate of the University of Alberta and Carleton University, Ottawa, he began his career in natural history and photography at the National Museum of Natural Sciences, Ottawa (1968-70). Tom conducted Wildlife Impact Studies (1970-6) and later was a Sessional Instructor, Lethbridge Community College, in Wildlands Conservation (1971-3) and the Technician for the Dept. of Biological Sciences (1976-8) at the University of Lethbridge. He was also the Director of the Medicine Hat Museum and Art Gallery from 1978 to 1998 and served as a volunteer on numerous Alberta museums, heritage, and wildlife boards. 

 

As a natural history photojournalist, Tom’s vast variety of wildlife and landscape images along with portraiture, aerial, and industrial photography are widely held in numerous national and international public and private collections. Tom is the author of the natural history book A Prairie Coulee (Lone Pine Press, 1991) and has written numerous articles on museums, photography, and natural history.  Together with his wife Susan, they own and operate the Willock & Sax Ltd. Gallery (est.1998) in Banff National Park.

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Listen to Tom Willock & Susan Sax-Willock discuss the show and his work on CKUA: