Tim Willcocks : Member in Profile

I am a photographer working with analogue and digital media, with a particular interest in abridging or altering the usual photographic processes to create original work, chiefly portraiture and often constructed tableau.

I trained as an advertising and editorial photographer at the Medway College of Design and have a recent fine art-based master’s degree in photography (distinction) from the University of Brighton. As part of my master’s, I discovered that I like writing about photography, and I’ve started what I’m calling a Journal on my website, a space for ideas, contemplation, and also thoughts about the work of others.

The themes of memory, post-memory, and conversations across time and place shape my thinking and inform my practice, which is frequently influenced by my interest in the surreal.

Andre Kertesz was my first photographic influence, notably his surrealist work and his Polaroids. Bill Brandt’s work made a big impact on me as a teenager. The work of the Bauhaus movement is particularly of interest, as is the work of the Surrealists, notably Rene Magritte and Marcel Duchamp and of course Man Ray. Recently I’ve been looking at Erwin Blumenfeld, Marilyn Stafford, Lee Miller, and contemporary photographers such as Tania Franco Klien, Cig Harvey, Ayana V Jackson, Steven Tynan and a little older, Valie Export and Dennis Oppenheim.

Despite not strictly being a documentary nor landscape photographer, I spend much time looking at the work of photographers such as Iain Sargent, Dan Woods and Robert Darch (see my review of Darch’s The Island on my website).  I’m also fascinated by more formal street portraiture; there’s a clear line between August Sander and Alys Tomlinson, taking in, for example Andrea Modica, Bruce Polin and of course Niall McDermid – an area of my practice I wish to expand.

The books of WG Sebald and Maria Stepanova are a big influence, as are the films of Tarkovsky. I’m currently delving into the melancholy wit of Franz Kafka. I’m inspired by everything and anything around me, from snippets of conversation to news articles.

I’m presently making work based on ideas around environmental and particularly what I’m calling elemental memory, planning a series of staged tableau as well as found or constructed environmental artifacts.

I am always interested in talking about photography and working in a collaborative way. I’ve managed to amass quite some knowledge which I’m keen to impart where possible especially to those new to the field.  Please do contact me if you’d like to chat or collaborate.

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