Meet Tom Fowlks | Photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tom Fowlks and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tom, what role has risk played in your life or career?
taking risks has been everything in my path to where I am today. from the very beginning, I knew I didn’t want to do what seemed traditional at the time, taking pictures of models, beautiful people and celebrities. I mean I grew up and came up the ladder here in LA, so that made sense for a lot of people. it was everywhere and it was in a way, what people expected when you had a camera in hand.
there was a day back there in the early part of it all, where I just said “I’m going to photograph real people doing real things” and I put one foot in front of the other and set about it.
I made a portfolio of what felt real to me and got laughed out of several of my first meetings with magazine editors. they were too real, not beautiful enough, etc. funny thing, those editors moved along, like wildebeests in a great migration and all of a sudden, “realism” was in.
from there I began to work.
my take on this, is you have to believe in yourself to a large extent. if that means making some decisions that can be viewed as risky, then you take them and push all your chips forward.

as far as taking risks, I got started early. out of college, with a biology degree in hand, I followed my obsessions with Jack London, Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck up to Alaska to work on Commercial Fishing Boats for a few years as a field biologist (an “Observer” was the term for that required crew member on those boats). this was before “the Perfect Storm” or the “Deadliest Catch”. No one knew what it was like up there back then, in the early 90’s, and I came home with tales of life hanging over the edge, the “Wild West” type of life up there in Dutch Harbor and a duffle bag of character to build off of. following some foolish risky idea, a traumatic injury in the field had me in a year of physical therapy and I rolled the dice again, realizing I wanted more out of life than logging information for a government agency. I found my way into some city college classes and just felt seized by what the photography classes were showing me. it was then that I declared, to no one in particular, that I would make a go of this photography thing. I talked my way into working for a few photographers I’d met thru working on film sets (features, but B Movies) and enjoyed those first steps in my new direction. but the pond didn’t stay full too long and one recommended I try a photography school up in Santa Barbara to get a sense of direction.
I applied and got in, but thing was they took anybody who could write a check. I went thru the first year of core classes and decided it would be good for me to press pause and get some field experience, I knew a family friend who had a strong career doing lifestyle and beauty work and she was looking for a new assistant. excited with this prospect, I approached a teacher whom I considered a mentor and laid out my plan. I would take 2 semesters off to work for her and see what the real working world for a photographer was like and then come back to start taking all the amazing sounding upper division classes they had on offer and become the photographer I was now dreaming to be. he shot it down and said “you’ll never make it and if you go that long, you’ll never come back”. pardon my French, but I looked him square in the eyes and told him to Fuck Off!
he was right, I didn’t return.
I won’t claim that I’ve made it, but I never stopped at assisting Richard Avedon and hung my hat on it as he had.
I dug in, assisted for about 5 years and then struck out on my own.

I went on to make my way shooting photos of my beloved “Real People Doing Real Things”, began getting assignments, and dove into personal projects that gripped my imagination and held it firm. I earned a spot on the masthead for Field & Stream as well as Outdoor Life, both of whom sent me to all 4 corners of the country covering wild assignments from Squirrel hunts in Apalachicola, FL to the western reaches of the Yukon Delta in Alaska for a 2 week moose hunt. everyone of those assignments called for me to photograph “Real People Doing Real Things”, people providing for their families by their passion for hunting and fishing in the outdoors. and I was tested every single assignment. the guides first question upon meeting me would always be a version of “So . . . you’re from LA huh . . .” and then I had to earn their trust and confidence in order to get the photos I wanted and needed. but I Loved it!! I always came back with the goods and began to be the guy they called on for the trickier subjects.

as for personal projects, I’d started with a few that gave me an understanding of structure, photographing Demolition Derbies, Ice Fishermen and that sort of thing. then I heard about the Panama Canal Expansion and knew I needed to get down there and try to document it. maybe 1 trip a year to catalog progress, something like that. well . . . that turned into a whole other type of enchilada and I found myself doing anything it took to get down there as often as possible, for as long as possible. in the beginning I had the interest of a few magazines, it was an exciting mega project with global implications, so photos were wanted. but nobody wanted photos year after year for a project that went on to last for some 6-8 years. so I sent myself. and long story short, not knowing what I was doing with all the photos I was taking, it became my first book (so far only one as well). not a money making endeavor, but to complete something like that, over the course of 6-8 years, sending yourself down there when no one else would because you were awake all night thinking about it, and then to make a 200+ page book from it, it felt good. you learn a lot from following your gut on that kind of call.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I feel like I answered quite a bit of this in the “Risk” response, so I may copy and paste some of those parts and see if I can extrapolate from there.

I mentioned in that earlier response that I zigged when a lot of people zagged getting started. I wanted to make it doing my thing “Real People Doing Real Things”. in todays landscape, lots of photographers shoot this subject, it gained traction back in the early 2000’s, and is not so uncommon today. but some of them are still caught up with some sort of deer in the headlights “look tuff” type of portrait and combine a little “lifestyle” photography with it to make a career of it. I’ve always felt when I came back from an assignment, I was showing these “Real People” enjoying themselves doing “Real Things”. sometimes that enjoyment was expressed thru moments of anguish, and sometimes thru moments of pain, but quite often those moments told the story that was shown with their accomplishment in the end. this sort of approach was especially important in the process type assignments, going on a hunt for instance. you don’t always get what you’re after so to speak, but you had better tell a story about time spent out there and the enjoyment of it.
I’ve been told by friends and peers that I made heroes out of ordinary people. that for me is as strong of a compliment as I might get. better than being told this is “museum quality” work, especially as none of it has wound up in one. making the guy or gal next to you a hero for the day thru the making of a few photographs is about as much as I can give back to the people who give me their time and don’t know what will come of it.
another put it like this “the photos from your trip to Kuna Yala are like visual Hemingway”. I nearly wept when I read that.

I think I’m most proud of sticking to my guns throughout this thing called my career. somehow, I’ve never really made it BIG, but I am proud of how “I did it my way”, as Frank sings it.
I’ve achieved a lot of the goals I set out for myself earlier in my career and that got me to a lot of places I never dreamed I’d see, and maybe never would have if it weren’t for an editor thinking I was the right fit for the story.
I still have goals, and even some dreams, and that’s what continues to fuel me going forward.

the most exciting thing for me is being able to work with “Real People”, who are not used to having their photograph taken, and maybe don’t want to have it taken, and spending the time to imbed in their story, make them comfortable and then coax moments out of them where they maybe look heroic, in charge, or proud themselves. sharing the results of that is the most exciting part.

for the “How did you get started and what challenges did you overcome” part I will refer you to that answer in the “Risk” section and please, if you need more, I will be happy to provide more

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I’ve got a little story to start this one out : it came from a taco blog and they’d gotten word of Val Kilmer visiting an unidentifiable taco shop and he’d tweeted about it and it set everyone running.
“by even conservative estimates, Kilmer has something like 16 tacos of varying varieties on his tray. there looks to be some carne asada, chicken, and non-tromp al pastor in the mix, and the tortillas seem rough enough around the edges to maybe even be handmade, though that’s unconfirmed. what is not in dispute: Val Kilmer loves avocado salsa.
Unfortunately, it’s not easy to tell from the video exactly where Kilmer is enjoying his outsized haul. but that’s okay, Kilmer recounts. “this isn’t about one particular taco place, it’s about “being from Los Angeles” and loving tacos from anywhere, just because they’re tacos”. In Los Angeles, we are all Val Kilmer. and we all deserve tacos”

that story meant and means everything to me.

when a friend comes in and has the patience as well as the appetite for it, I’d get them out on a taco crawl that covers multiple zip codes and uses several freeways and back roads. I’ve done it, not many times, but when someone really wants to see Los Angeles, let the tacos be your guide. finding them can either involve internet rabbit holes, though there are well organized blogs dedicated to them, or just get in the damn car and keep your eyes peeled. they’re everywhere!

drinks is tuff, cuz I don’t care much for new faces on old places. I like a good dive bar and there aren’t many left. I’ve spent time at the Cozy Inn in Culver City and the nearby Cinema Bar, but even those grow old on you especially in the pandemic times. I think now, maybe I prefer some of these above mentioned taco places and similar destinations that will offer a regional drink when they have the license to. a good Michelada, or a Paloma with that taco . . . priceless.

great places to visit in Los Angeles are bountiful and just depends on the mood of your visitor. great time in the outdoors is available at the Descanso Gardens as well as the Huntington Library. I recently had an assignment telling the story of “rogue Peacocks” in Los Angeles and spent a lot of time photographing them at the Los Angeles Arboretum. what a great place to for a walk, see some amazing birds and beautiful flora in close to natural conditions.
hanging out . . . it’s always nice when you can take someone from out of town to a backyard to just eat some food with friends, enjoy some drinks and realize you likely don’t need that sweatshirt you brought along.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
this is actually tough to answer for me. I’ve more or less always been a lone wolf as a photographer.
I mean I have friends from coming up in the ranks when we were assisting, but they more or less chose those traditional pathways for the time; fashion, celebrity, etc. and likely kept thoughts of me not making it doing what I was doing to themselves.
I would have to say my folks have been behind me in spite of some of the crazy projects I have pursued and wild assignments I have been on. they have always been proud of my results.
I’ll give a shoutout to Mom!

feel a bit bad that I can’t produce an answer here that fits
I’ve bought lots of photo books, but I never look at them. in fact they’re all for sale on eBay.

Website: www.tomfowlks.com

Instagram: @tom_fowlks

Other: for me it’s really the two I filled in facebook is just a place I push my instagram posts to for family to see or friends that resisted Instagram