JON TONKS

This exciting young documentary photographer talks about prospering and getting published in 2016 with Geoff Harris

How did you become a documentary photographer? I initially studied product design for my first degree between 2000 to 2003. There were some add-on courses on photography, including darkroom skills, and that got me started.

I kept photography up after graduating and did some travelling. I sent some images to a travel magazine competition, and one was selected for exhibition, which struck a chord. After that I did a bit of assisting work, which I didn’t really enjoy, before freelancing and then working full‑time on a local newspaper.

What lessons did you learn on the newspaper?

It was a big learning curve; I had no formal training in photography and had to pick things up as I went along. I’d be doing six to eight jobs a day, and couldn’t come back emptyhanded. There’s no time to recce locations, and you had to think on your feet and be creative to achieve a result in a sometimes pressured situation.

You then went back to college to do an MA in photojournalism – why?

I wanted to broaden my horizons, and felt the newspaper didn’t offer that opportunity. For me, >

my interest in photography often revolves around travelling to new places (and sometimes getting paid for it as well).

I was still pretty new to the photography world when I started the course, but early influences for me were people like Alec Soth, Stephen Shore, Tony Ray-Jones and Martin Parr. The course at the London College of Communication was great, and I met a good group of peers who I still keep in touch with now. I think that it’s important to have a friendship group within this industry: it can become a lonely occupation if you’re not careful.

What is it about documentary photography that appeals to you?

For me, the importance is the story. To create a series of images I have to justify it to myself, so whether it be a portrait or a landscape I like to have an interesting narrative underneath.

After college, how did you get established?

While I was at college, I started to put together the project that became

Empire, a study of a handful of far-flung remote islands that remain part of the UK.

At the same time I started doing portfolio reviews and going to see picture editors. I would do weddings and event photography just to earn money for my trips. I was freelancing for the newspaper I’d previously worked at too, but I had also started to get work for The Sunday Times Magazine, Monocle and other magazines that would commission some interesting work.

How did the Empire project get off the ground?

During my MA I decided to do a project on something quite British, but ironically I also wanted to travel overseas. I began researching British Overseas Territories. The first place I became fascinated by was Ascension, an outpost with a relatively complicated political situation. It forms part of a British overseas territory together with Saint Helena and Tristan da Cunha.

The population is largely made up of Saint Helenian descendants (with a UK passport), but they have no legal right to remain there, even if they were born on the island. Everyone over the age of 18 lives and works there on a temporary contract, and I was interested in how a community functions under these circumstances.

I decided to go to Ascension and spent a month taking pictures. When I returned to the UK, people responded well to the images, but I was keen to publish a book, and the general consensus was to make something broader... more epic if you like. The Empire project developed itself rather organically from there.

Empire eventually became a book, right?

Yes. I met Dewi Lewis of Dewi Lewis Publishing at an AOP awards event, as he’d shortlisted one of my images. This started a fruitful conversation that eventually led to the book.

Another big influence on the book was Martin Parr. He got in touch out of the blue and said he’d come across

“It’s important to have a friendship group within this industry: it can become a lonely occupation if you’re not careful”

Right Gibraltar, February 2009 Jon says: “This stairway dates back to a 1967 referendum on the sovereignty of Gibraltar. Plans for a change to Spanish rule were rejected then and in 2002.”

Below left St Helena, May 2013 “Jamestown is the capital of St Helena, the second-oldest remaining British Colony after Bermuda.”

Far left St Helena, February 2010 “Arthur ‘Burn Down’ Thomas stops for a photograph while working as a petrol pump attendant. ‘Saints’ generally pick up nicknames at a young age that stick with them throughout their lives.”

Left St Helena, May 2013 “The Governor’s residence. A giant tortoise called Jonathan lives in the front garden; in his 180 years he has met every governor.”