DISCOVER

NEW NAMES

WHENa snowboarding accident. As a keen sportsman who he was 16, Tommy Clarke broke his back in

had just got his first call-up for the England rowing team, this was a major blow to his future plans. “I

wasn’t even jumping off cliffs or doing other cool t h i ng s when it happened,” he r uef u lly remember s.

“I just fell over rat her slowly.” After recovering from his injury, he began a new

role as the team’s official photographer. He loved it, and the positive feedback from his peers encouraged

him to shoot more. A new career direction began to make itself clear. While studying sports science at

university he did some freelancing for Country Life,

and at the end of his studies he began to get into fashion shoots. “I went to New York, Sydney and

Paris for various publications,” he says. “I did a lot with Vogue, and it was great fun, but unfortunately

it was during the recession so budgets were very small. It was a lot of work for little money.”

In 2011, Clarke was living by Bondi Beach in Australia, and decided to try aerial photography. He

was an admirer of Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s Earth from the Air images, so it was something he had

wanted to try for a long time. He also saw it as a way to give his work a unique selling point. “I was doing lots

of landscape photography because Bondi is such a

TOMMY CLARKE

Once a promising sportsman turned fashion

photographer, Tommy Clarke is now an

emerging name in fine-art aerial photography

40 _ PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY _ NOVEMBER 2015

Rising _ Stars _ Tommy _ Clarke

Inspirational images and stories from rising stars – and a regular look at pros’ personal projects

DISCOVER

NEW NAMES

WHENa snowboarding accident. As a keen sportsman who he was 16, Tommy Clarke broke his back in

had just got his first call-up for the England rowing team, this was a major blow to his future plans. “I

wasn’t even jumping off cliffs or doing other cool t h i ng s when it happened,” he r uef u lly remember s.

“I just fell over rat her slowly.” After recovering from his injury, he began a new

role as the team’s official photographer. He loved it, and the positive feedback from his peers encouraged

him to shoot more. A new career direction began to make itself clear. While studying sports science at

university he did some freelancing for Country Life,

and at the end of his studies he began to get into fashion shoots. “I went to New York, Sydney and

Paris for various publications,” he says. “I did a lot with Vogue, and it was great fun, but unfortunately

it was during the recession so budgets were very small. It was a lot of work for little money.”

In 2011, Clarke was living by Bondi Beach in Australia, and decided to try aerial photography. He

was an admirer of Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s Earth from the Air images, so it was something he had

wanted to try for a long time. He also saw it as a way to give his work a unique selling point. “I was doing lots

of landscape photography because Bondi is such a

TOMMY CLARKE

Once a promising sportsman turned fashion

photographer, Tommy Clarke is now an

emerging name in fine-art aerial photography

40 _ PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY _ NOVEMBER 2015

Rising _ Stars _ Tommy _ Clarke

Inspirational images and stories from rising stars – and a regular look at pros’ personal projects