| I'm happy that you've found my website. It is here because I was so impressed with my friend Hugh D'Andrade's site I asked if he could design one for me. Now you can see what I've been up to without having to drop by my Shotwell Street studio. Take a look and call or e-mail me if you want to talk, discuss rates, or see actual photographs. |
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| You can email me at tom@tomerikson.com! Click here to see some exciting new projects! |
| About Me Twenty years ago I moved from midtown Manhatten, where I'd been writing script and assisting on shoots for Custom Network Broadcasting, a cable T.V. production company, and began working in film. I worked at the edit center of Snazelle Film and Tape, screening rushes for Gene Wilder, among others, and assisting in the film edit suites. After a year, and several features for Paramount Pictures and Virgin Films, a quickly forgotten Loni Anderson Special, and some memorable months with comedian Andy Kaufman, in the office working on his Pro Wrestling Documentary, I left for Europe. Two and a half months of hitchhiking and I had made the decision that I'd rather work for myself. |
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| Photography
had been a big part of the work I produced for my BA in Semiotic
Theory at Brown University in 1983 and I had taken photography,
as well as video art classes, at The Rhode Island School of Design,
while at Brown. I returned to photography happily after a video
internship in New York, with artist Dara Birnbaum, and my stint
with T.V and the movies. I'd grown up with an appreciation for documentary
portraiture, my father being a skilled photographer working as archivist
/historian for The American Association of Anatomists while a professor
at The Harvard Medical School. In fact one of my first assignments,
while still a student, was to photograph Nobel laureate Linus Pauling
for my father's archives. I began freelancing seriously in 1984,
supplementing my photo work with teaching at The Exploratorium's
Teacher Institute. While on staff part-time I contributed photography
to the museum's magazine and documented their Speaking of Music
Series, initiating a ten year documentary relationship with composer
John Cage. |
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| Documenting music has always been a big part of my work, but as my portraiture has deepened I've worked with a broader range of artists and professionals in other fields, particularly with the high tech companies that proliferate in this part of the world. I've also contributed to various journalism projects, including my own articles and reviews in the local weeklies. For a little over a year, my friend Kurt Wolff and I even had a column, featuring local artists, in The San Francisco Bay Guardian. Below are some partial lists of work that has gotten done. |
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| DOCUMENTARY AND SPECIAL PROJECTS (Partial List) The Rockefeller Brothers' Fund
The New
York Times EXHIBITS
(Partial List)
Townes
Van Zandt, Arista Records |