Jon Tonks

Tonks was born in Sutton Coldfield in the West Midlands. He studied design then worked as a local newspaper photographer. Later he earned an MA in Photojournalism & Documentary Photography from London College of Communication.{{Cite news |last=Houghton |first=Max |date=2015-09-14 |title=Island life: the last outposts of the British Empire |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/photography/what-to-see/jon-tonks--photographs-of-the-vestiges-of-the-british-empire/ |access-date=2024-10-20 |work=The Telegraph |language=en-GB |issn=0307-1235}}{{Cite web |title=Information & Contact |url=https://www.jontonks.com/information-contact/ |access-date=2024-10-21 |website=Jon Tonks |language=en}}

Tonks' first book Empire (2014) is about four small far-flung territories that remain under British rule: Tristan da Cunha, Ascension Island, Saint Helena, and the Falkland Islands. Beginning in 2007, Tonks spent five years working on the project and travelled around 50,000 miles; he "spent a month in each territory, and over a month at sea getting to them". Sean O'Hagan, reviewing the book in The Observer, wrote that "Tonk mixes portraiture and documentary to show how important post-colonial tradition is to the survival of these communities and how their adherence to a kind of old-fashioned Britishness can make them seem culturally as well as geographically isolated in our increasingly globalised world." An accompanying text mixes historical fact and anecdote.{{Cite news |last=O'Hagan |first=Sean |date=2013-12-29 |title=Empire by Jon Tonks – review |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/dec/29/empire-jon-tonks-photography-review |access-date=2024-10-20 |work=The Observer |language=en-GB |issn=0029-7712}}

• Empire. Stockport: Dewi Lewis, 2014. Photographs and text. Edition of 1000 copies. {{ISBN|9781907893490}}.{{Cite web |last=Padley |first=Gemma |title=Images from the faded and forgotten last outposts of the British Empire|url=https://www.1854.photography/2015/08/images-from-the-faded-and-forgotten-last-outposts-of-the-british-empire/ |access-date=2024-10-20 |website=British Journal of Photography |language=en-GB}}
• Second edition. Dewi Lewis, 2014. {{ISBN|978-1907893490}}.
• The Men Who Would Be King. Stockport: Dewi Lewis, 2021. With Christopher Lord. {{ISBN|978-1-911306-43-6}}.{{Cite news |date=2021-11-27 |title='There was a prophecy I would come': the western men who think they are South Pacific kings |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/27/western-men-who-dream-of-being-south-pacific-kings-vanuatu-prophesy |access-date=2024-10-21 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}

• Empire, Mac, Birmingham, 2014; Ffotogallery, Cardiff, 2015; Impressions Gallery, Bradford, September–December 2015{{Cite web |last=Padley |first=Gemma |title=Photography - what's on|url=https://www.1854.photography/2014/10/photography-whats-on/ |access-date=2024-10-20 |website=British Journal of Photography |language=en-GB}}{{Cite web |title=Jon Tonks: Empire |url=https://www.impressions-gallery.com/event/empire-by-jon-tonks/ |access-date=2024-10-20 |website=Impressions Gallery |language=en}}

• Cargo, Format International Photography Festival, Derby, 2017{{Cite web |last=Seymour |first=Tom |title=On show at Format – Jon Tonks' Cargo|url=https://www.1854.photography/2017/03/on-show-at-format-jon-tonks-cargo/ |access-date=2024-10-20 |website=British Journal of Photography |language=en-GB}}

• 2014: Vic Odden Award, Royal Photographic Society, Bath, UK

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• {{Official website|www.jontonks.com}}

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Category:British documentary photographers

Category:21st-century British photographers

Category:Artists from the West Midlands (county)

Category:Alumni of the London College of Communication

Category:People from Sutton Coldfield

Category:1981 births

Category:Living people

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