Italy through the eyes of a photographer
Posted by Michele | Filed under Random
My friend, Tom Malone is a very humble man. Not only that, he is extremely generous. You can reveal the nature of his personality. His brings his still life photos to life with passion and tremendous sensitivity. He loves his work but sluffs off compliments. Possibly it’s because it is just a hobby for him. This is a great attitude to have when creating art. Look at Gloria Estaban. She was just writing music because she loves to write music. Then, WHAM! Success over night.
Tom brought us the most amazing gift last weekend. He presented my husband with a most professional hardcover coffee table book. He created five books just for his closest friends. There were forty spectacular views from his perspective and eye of Northern Italy. Many have traveled these areas but snapshots would not do the towns justice like these beautiful shots of Lake Cuomo, Lombardia and and all surrounding areas of Tuscany. This is true art. The balance, color, scale and conceptual are not a happy surprise. The talent comes from inside the person viewing and the hand shooting. For painters, the same is true. No one will take the same photo or paint the same style.
Out of the group, I chose the shots I’m sharing with you. Wisteria always makes me gasp but I almost fell over when I saw this shot he took in Tresivio, Lombardia. I chose the two different boat shots. The first one because of the stillness, perfection of balance from his viewpoint, the reflection and the monochromatic gray and lavender tones. Gee, funny how he planned the placement in the book on the opposite page of the Wisteria. You see, he’s got the eye!
My other favorite is the Poppy. Tom Blew this one up for me. It’s tremendous. For some reason, it brings back memories of the seventies. I remember going through a model home and seeing a large painting like this. The room was very modern for that time with a red shag, white sofas with black accents. What an impact that made on me as well as this photo.
Tom Malone began seriously studying photography in 1967. His formal education was through the University of California at Santa Cruz where he also attended numerous of Ansel Adams workshops in the 1970’s. “I the 1980’s I studied with Morley Baer, Al Weber, John Sexton, Huntington Witherill and Henry Gilpin. My main focus,(pardon the pun) was Black and White Photography for many years. Approximately two years ago I changed direction and started concentrating more on color images”, Tom says.
Tom is proud but I’m certain his modesty is getting in the way. He’s ok with me writing the blog about him so I’ll just share them with you!
Click here to see the portfolio of Tom Malone. Enjoy!
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
