Entropic Kingdom, published in April 2012 by Modernbook Editions (San Francisco), is a 112 page hardcover book with sixty-four 4/color images created by photographer Tom Chambers over twelve years from five different photographic series: Ex Votos, Rite of Passage, Entropic Kingdom, Marwari Stallion, and Dreaming in Reverse. Through photomontage Chambers presents unspoken stories which illustrate fleeting moments in time and which are intended to evoke a mood in the viewer. These mythical illustrations might address the fragility of childhood or the delicate transition experienced by a child passing into adolescence and then adulthood. Others express the tension in the uncertain coexistence between man and his environment, a delicate balance too often ignored and damaged. Each photomontage is carefully constructed, using both images that have been planned and those that unexpectedly enhance the story. With digital photography Chambers moves beyond documentation of the present, and rather seeks to merge reality and dreams in musing about possibilities of the future.
Photographer Tom Chambers was raised in the Amish farm country of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Tom completed a B.F.A. in 1985 from The Ringling School of Art, Sarasota, Florida majoring in graphic design with an emphasis in photography. Since 1998 Tom has exhibited photomontage images from ten photographic series both nationally and internationally in twenty three solo exhibitions and over seventy group exhibitions and art fairs. A retrospective book Hearts and Bones, containing images from his first nine series, was published by Unicorn Publishing, London, in 2018.
Awards Px3 2018 - Prix de La Photographie Paris, Digitally Enhanced category, Bronze award
11th Annual Pollux Awards, Digital Manipulation & Collage category, March 2018, First Place
Biennial Of Fine Art and Documentary Photography’s 2nd Biennial Grant, January 2018, 2nd place
International Photography Awards 2015 (IPA), Professional Special Photographer of Year & Professional Digitally Enhanced, 1st Place
International Photography Awards 2012 (IPA), Digitally Enhanced, 2nd Place and Fine Art Book, Honorable Mention
PX3 2012, Fine Art Book Award, Honorable Mention and Fine Art Digitally Enhanced, Honorable Mention
PDN Magazine Photo of the Day, August 4, 2011
International Photography Awards 2011 (IPA), Digitally Enhanced, First Place
PX3 2011, Fine Art Digitally Enhanced Category, Silver Award
Jacob Riis Photography Awards 2011 and 2010, Finalist
PX3 2010, 2nd Place, Fine Art Digitally Enhanced
Critical Mass Top 50: 2010, 2008, and 2006, Photolucida, Portland, Oregon
PhotoSpiva 2010: 34th Annual National Photography Competition and Exhibition 2010, First Place
Intenational Aperture Awards 2009, 3rd Place-Gold, Abstract/Illustrative Category
The Worldwide Photography Gala Awards, 2009, Madrid, Spain, 1st Place, Digitally Enhanced Category
Fotoweek DC Awards 2009, Washington, DC, First Place, Fine Arts Category
TPS #15 and #18: The National Competition, 2006 & 2009, Texas Photographic Society, San Antonio, TX, 1st Place and 3rd Place
Professional Fellowship, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, May 2005
Visual Artist Fellowship, Virginia Commission For The Arts, December 2000
