spotlight


ATWOOD KINGS & QUEENS IN THEIR CASTLES LGBT AMERICANS AT HOME


TOM by joel martens


Every once in a while, an artist comes along with a concept that challenges preconceptions and allows you to see the world from a new perspective. Tom Atwood is one of those artists. His photography takes you inside the lives of LGBT Americans, over 350 of them across the nation, in a way that just simply hasn’t been done before. Giving us a rare glimpse into their universe, capturing them as they simply exist in their lives. Deeply personal, yet oddly removed, it’s like a subject captured and contained, yet in the most intimate settings possible: At home, in bed lounging, making coffee, sitting on their stoops talking with a partner, cooking dinner or practicing their chosen craft. “LGBT’s in their natural environment” is the phrase that keeps running through my mind, beautiful, effortless and ordinary... Well, sort of. His images oddly reminiscent of a captured bug, viewed up close and through the lens of a microscope.


This is his story.


Tell me a little about what got you into photography, when you caught the bug, if you will. I’m kind of self-taught, I’m an autodidact. I guess I had always taken photographs as a kid and got serious about it after college. In some ways, I see it as kind of a blend of many of my other influences. When I was younger, I dabbled in painting and sculpture, I was interested in architec- ture and I was always making things. I also did a lot of theatre and in college


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RAGE monthly | MARCH 2017


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