It Starts with a Thumb

What can we learn from a stranger from a single roll of 35mm film?

Recently I rediscovered a box under my bed. I have kept it with me for the last 8 or 9 years, moving them from flat to flat. It holds A small archive of contact sheets and photographs taken over the 1980s by a former acquaintance of my mum’s called Tom, an amateur yet prolific photographer. As I never met Tom before he passed away, it seems strange to have his images, yet they feel important to keep. I feel close to them, but I still know nothing about them.

With help from Tom’s wife Janet I try learn more about Tom and his obsessive relationship with photography. As an attempt to get to know or understand the person behind the camera, I revisit the sites of these photographs 30+ years after they were taken bringing one of Tom’s film cameras with me. We retrace some of his history together, some of which even Janet doesn’t know about. Coming together somewhere between a documentary and a pilgrimage.

His contact sheets unearth and expose every decision and point of interest on a roll of film. Portraits of musicians followed by photos of fake hands, pigeons, balls of string, sculptures and a thumb or perhaps it’s a toe, it’s difficult to tell. I started to view these images as fragments of legible cartography, or as timelines. Looking beyond the photographs, and into the unknown lengths of time where Tom wasn’t behind the camera. Who was he? And how did this seemingly random selection of images link to the life he was living between each one?

New Creatives is supported by Arts Council England and BBC Arts.

Artist Name – Peter Eason Daniels
Janet Berny – Contributor
Tom Berny – Photography
Danny Pagarani – Music Composer
Steve Gear – Mentor

Show less