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Tom Hunter was born in Dorset in 1965. In 1986 he moved to Hackney in East London. At the age of 25 he started studying photography then took a degree at the London College of Printing followed by a postgraduate degree at the Royal College of Art.

His subjects are the  lives of the ordinary residents of Hackney as reported in local newspapers. These often startling stories are told in carefully staged photographs derived from the works of old masters such as Velasquez, Caravaggio, Gaugin… Through his work he touches on themes of poverty, violence, prostitution, housing,  and the life of the various communities in Hackney.

In 1998 he received the John Kobal Photographic Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery with, « Woman Reading a Possession Order » an image that first brought him to the attention of the public. Compositionally based on a Vermeer  painting, the photograph reflected the reality of Hunter’s life in Hackney at the time.  Since then Hunter’s work has been shown in exhibitions throughout the world.