Eye for high society
T.O. pro reflects on decades of star-studded photography,
If you’ve ever been photographed by Tom Sandler, you’re in really good company.
The society photographer is as comfortable taking pictures of the Queen (and many other royals) as he is Toronto’s Beckerman twins, in all their high-fashion ensembles, at any number of fundraisers and parties throughout the year.
Sandler, along with his wife and business partner Aline Sandler, has been documenting the social life of the city since the early1980s, amassing a collection of more than one million photographs.
“It’s easier to recall the times I don’t see them,” says Zoomer editor-in-chief Suzanne Boyd. “They are such a constant.”
“We love Tommy!” bloggers Cailli and Sam Beckerman said via email from Paris Fashion Week. “We always feel a real sense of happiness coming from Tommy when he takes our photo.”
Sandler, 65, is Toronto’s de facto Bill Cunningham, but instead of capturing style on the streets of New York City, Sandler’s lens takes aim at the fabulous, fashionable and philanthropic in the 416, where he and Aline attend 150 to 200 events each year. And he’s just as hardworking as his fabled American counterpart.
Framed photographs from his 30-year career fill the brown-brick house Sandler shares with Aline in Toronto’s northwest end. There are black and whites of Queen Elizabeth II and Nelson Mandela, and a corner dedicated to Sandler’s mother, Ruth Lowe.
Lowe wrote the song “I’ll Never Smile Again,” which was recorded by Tommy Dorsey and Frank Sinatra and hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts for 12 weeks in1940. It was inducted into the Grammy Awards Hall of Fame in1982.
It’s no surprise, then, that Sandler’s first vocation was music.
“I was really bored by photography when I was younger,” Sandler said. “I had an uncle who was the movie taker of the family. Every time we had family functions he would come in with 8-mm film, with these big lights on this bar. It was so intrusive.
“Music was really the thing,” said Sandler, who now plays guitar once a week in a blues and country band.
In his mid-20s, Sandler decided to get an “adult” gig, seeking creative work with a steady income. His first job: mixing soundtracks for television shows.
Several years later, he joined Harbourfront Centre. He remained there 10 years as chief photographer, honing his craft by seeking the advice of newspaper photographers. Sandler was tasked with documenting the changing waterfront, from the demolition of old warehouses along Lake Ontario to the construction of new buildings dotting the city’s skyline.
“This new world opened up to me. Music is different, (photography) made more sense to me and it satisfied something that music wasn’t able to at that time. And I started becoming really good at it.”
In 1989, Sandler left Harbourfront to establish Tom Sandler Photography with Aline.
“As long as I do what she says, we’re fine,” Tom joked. Their partnership works: the pair celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary in true Sandler family fashion last October — working a fundraiser for one of the city’s major hospitals.
“We have disagreements, of course. But about business, rarely,” offers Aline, known for her long, bleached hair and penchant for sequins, ban- gles and heels. “We’re pretty much in sync with the day to day.”
With their own business came prestigious gigs. Tom is the official photographer for Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla Parker Bowles, as well as Prince Edward and his wife, Sophie, Countess of Wessex, whenever they are in town.
Norman Jewison hires Sandler every September to shoot the filmmaker’s VIP barbecue during the Toronto International Film Festival. And Sandler is the official photographer for the Giller Prize ceremony, the Weston family foundation, the Toronto Arts Foundation Awards and more. His images have been published in Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, the New York Times and Time, as well as every national Canadian newspaper.
“(Tom) and Aline are a Toronto institution,” said George Pimentel, the Toronto red-carpet photographer who met the Sandlers in 1995 at the Jewison barbecue. “He knows how to always get the shot and he knows people really well. I hope that I can last and have the same energy as Tom.”
Throughout the years, the society and party scenes in Toronto have loosened up, Sandler says. “(Toronto) stopped being stuffy and conservative, and began to open up and lighten up!” he recalls of the late 1980s. “It’s a very generous city. We could go night after night to fundraisers and galas.”
And, as anyone with a smartphone knows, the world of photography has changed drastically too. Sandler has embraced social media but remains particular about quality. “I think it’s a great tool, it’s great to promote yourself if you’re a photographer,” said Sandler, who runs his own Instagram account (@tom_sandler_).
“But I think social media has lowered the prestige of photography. Even if it is a quality shot, it can get lost in the shuffle of social media.”
Sandler, too, is evolving. “I wanna do more,” he said. Perhaps a book of his favourite images or a series of books sorted by decade. A creative’s work, after all, is never really done.