Photomanipulation 3rd place winner

All my life I have held a fascination with the animal kingdom, which began in my childhood growing up
on a farm and extended into my adult years. On some inexplicable level I feel a special connection with both domesticated and wild animals. In this series Animal Visions my photomontages tell stories about these relationships.

While working on Animal Visions I found myself circling back to the influence of magic realism. In the early 20th century Latin American writers and artists used magic realism to create images, which with a simple twist go beyond the expected into the unexpected. In this series I have constructed images to tell unfinished stories, which initially might seem true and believable, but likely are improbable. As I imagined in my childhood the animals and humans share a kindred connection.

Photographer Tom Chambers was raised in the Amish farm country of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Tom completed a B.F.A. in 1985 from The Ringling School of Art, Sarasota, Florida majoring in graphic design with an emphasis in photography. Since 1998 Tom has created photomontage images for sharing intriguing unspoken stories, all of which reflect his worldview and elicit a range of feelings in the viewer. Tom exhibits his photography both nationally and internationally.

Tom has received fellowships from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the Virginia Commission for the Arts. Tom’s photography is held in the collections of the National Museum of Photography, Bogotá, Colombia; California Sate Polytechnic University; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, CA; Santa Fe Museum of Art, NM; Museum of Realist Art, Boston; Sir Richard Branson, personal collection; and the Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. Entropic Kingdom, containing images from five series, was published by Modernbook Editions in 2012. Recently, Tom has completed two new series, "Illumination" and "Animal Visions".