CHARLES TOMPKINS || PHOTOGRAPHY

Charles “Charlie” Tompkins is a fine art photographer and old-time stringed musician who resides in the Foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Charlie had the “honor” to study under Ansel Adams, who had an obvious impact Charlie’s own artistic style and professional development. Charlie also claims Walker Evans and Edward Weston were major influences for his traditional “Black and White” imagery.

Personally, Charlie has been shaped by love of the out-of-doors, white water canoeing, performance artists and stringed musicians. “Charles Tompkins Gallery and Studio” includes a collection of photographs of abandoned places, iconic musicians, candid portraits, natural landscapes, rushing water and misty waterfalls from the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina, Georgia, the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia and the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

Photographically, the Artist maintains a strong proponent of traditional “Silver” imagery or “Straight Photography,” All his photographs have been captured using classic film cameras that include 35mm single lens, medium and large format systems. The images developed in his own darkroom with an age old process that involves light-sensitive, silver halides suspended in a gelatin emulsion on acid free paper. The results are timeless images characterized by sharp detail and a wide tonal range from deep black to bright white. Charlies believes that this traditional process holds the integrity of every photograph, as apposed to, what is now commonplace, digital photography that utilizes high levels of manipulation that can be seamlessly applied to any image.

Nearly six decades and thousands of images later, Charles Tompkins has archived and preserved his vast collection of photographs, extremely delicate to time, into a catalog of works for future generations to enjoy as the artists Oeuvre, a "Body of Work” that will introduce his contributions and importance as being one of the founding, fine art, traditional photographers of the 20th Century.

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https://charlestompkins.org