Tom Flynn graduated in 2010 with a BA Hons Photography from the Arts University College, Bournemouth. During last summer Tom exhibited a light installation as part of the Lumen Ortis Artificial Light exhibition in Bournemouth Gardens. Tom also spent time teaching photography to young people, for which he won the 2010 Volunteer Award for Outstanding Contribution to Cultural Legacy in the South West.
Tom’s work aims to explore the visual possibilities of light, often taking the form of installation and video but predominantly photography. To define light requires abstract thought and to create form from this abstract element simultaneously stimulates our understanding as well as its mystery. Questioning light’s materiality, experiencing the way it acts or reacts and celebrating light itself recognises the natural world with a great sense of awe -when knowledge is gained questions are born. The photographic process, in its ability to capture light as well as distort our reality, enables us to view these occurrences in a way that combines the imaginative with the representational.
Stress Birefringence is the term used when a ray of light passes through a material with molecules of no uniformity and refracts into two non-parallel linear rays. When a material is strained or layered the molecules refract the light into new directions causing a varied occurrence of colour. By placing a material such as clingfilm in the negative carrier of a photographic enlarger, as the artists does, and passing polarized light through it, it is possible to create images that encapsulate this process and allow the details of the occurrence to be seen.
