The photographs of Tom Leighton engage with the urban landscape. By digitally altering photographs, he tries to deconstruct and retranslate the cities that we inhabit. Creating fictional landscapes allows him to ignore the constraints of possibility and logic. However, as much as he pulls apart and constructs his unique urban views, he aims to create a believable view of the world, which verges on the surreal, but remains rooted in reality.
“My photography is very exploratory – I don’t go on planned ‘photo shoots’, but I amconstantly trying to track down exciting architecture or city views. In my work I have complete control as I contort & construct urban spaces. I show a complete disregard for the fundamentals of physics as I introduce gravity defying structures. I chose to use multiple natural light sources to create a collision of shadows and hyper real lighting. All this allows me to produce areas of ambiguity – and by doing so I play with the brains capacity to ignore or falsely correct what doesn’t make sense. My photographs are akin to a memory of a place - a distorted, reconstituted reality.”
Leighton has travelled through Europe, Asia and North America, building up an impressive body of photographic images that he then combines to make fantastical landscapes. His works are a celebration of architecture. Crammed with colour, form and energy, they highlight different aspects of the built environment. Structures and colours are carefully crafted to give the impression of populated places. Leighton's works ask playful questions, and show us the beauty and variety of our designed world.
Collections include: AT&T Corporate Collection, USA; Prudential Douglas Elliman, NYC, William Blair, Chicago / London; The Sandor Family Collection, Chicago; The Shein Family Collection of Pennsylvania; The V&A Museum, London; The UBS Art Collection, London; JCA Group, London; MuCEM (French National Museum of European and Mediterranean civilizations) Marseille.