Table of contents
Tom Hricko (born 1945) is an American photographer. He has been active in the field of photography for nearly 50 years, including both creative work and teaching. Additionally, he is also a photographer with close ties to Vietnam, considering it his second homeland for the past 30 years.
Spontaneity creates the allure of photography
Tom Hricko was introduced to the world of photography as a child, when he stumbled upon his father’s darkroom kit, which consisted of just a few trays, mixers, beakers, and a safe light (a ruby light). That sparked Tom’s curiosity. Intrigued, he began experimenting with contact prints in the bathroom using some old family negatives. As he watched the images develop before his eyes, he was captivated by the magic of photography. However, despite his initial fascination, this joy lasted only a year as Tom eventually stopped practicing photography.
After finishing high school, Tom Hricko studied painting for 2 years until his education was interrupted. During that time, he bought a camera and rediscovered the hobby he had enjoyed as a child. He found himself drawn to the spontaneousness of photography more than the deliberate aspect of painting. Therefore, he made the decision to switch his focus to studying photography. Since then, he has continued to pursue his passion without looking back.
After graduating, Tom Hricko worked as a teaching assistant at his school, and later became an art teacher at various universities and high schools. He has been actively involved in photography since the mid-1970s. In 1994, Tom moved to Vietnam and has been living and working here for almost 30 years. During this time, he has created numerous works that closely depict the country and its people.
Artwork is created from a blend of dreams and reality
Tom Hricko derives inspiration for his artistic works from two main sources: his observations of the world around him and his artistic intuition. He describes his mind as being filled with countless automatic images that manifest during wakefulness and dreaming.
For Tom, this is all part of the creative process. He takes what he sees and finds ways to transform them or allow them to transform themselves during the image-making process. In his opinion, the allure of photography lies in the fact that it reveals things to us that we would not normally be able to see. He calls it the magic that photography has brought into his life from the very beginning until now.
Tom sees photography as a portal to a different reality, a separate world. To evoke a sense of wonder in his viewers, he employs transformational techniques that he has refined over many years in the field. While capturing images, he asks himself “what can I do with that?” or thinks: perhaps, something can be done “to move it from the mundane thing that exists for everybody else into something different to me that may be charged with a different reality or a different existence.” This question helps him bring out the magic of his subjects in his artwork, and deliver them to viewers with a sense of wonder.
After pressing the shutter button, the photographer waits for the magic to emerge during image processing. The magical moment may or may not happen, but the joy of the photographer is in witnessing the gradual transformation of the image through experimentation and patience. For Tom, perhaps it is a moment to relive the excitement of his childhood, of eyes that once looked upon a different reality full of novelty. Tom said that “a balance of mysterious inspiration from the sky basically and observation that suggests opportunities to penetrate into the realm of special vision that the camera has.”
Tom’s work explores the concept of time, which is invisible yet essential. He says: “time that we can’t see, especially long time or moments of time that pile up upon itself or series of things that stretch out in time.” He finds it quite fascinating to describe this in images and therefore incorporates the element of time into his work.
Look deeply into the photo!
In 2022, at the Hoa Ta Photoshow exhibition, Tom Hricko introduced two photos, “Cloud” and “Cloud Dragon,” which he took in Vung Tau.
When he took those pictures, he was living in an apartment by the water in Vung Tau. From his balcony, he could see the sea and rolling hills to the right, and he felt like he was watching an endless movie of changing atmospheres and worlds from morning till night, especially when there was the Moon. The scenery had a profound effect on Tom’s artistic sensibilities, turning him from a photographer into an observer. He found himself completely immersed in the stunning visuals before him and no longer felt the need to take photos. Simply watching was enough for him. In those early days in Vietnam, when conditions were scarce and he lacked access to a darkroom or suitable place to process photographic film, Tom had to stop taking photos until the early 2000s. Despite this setback, his passion for photography remained undimmed, and he continued capturing images with his imagination.
As Tom observed the world around him, he began to perceive a new reality through his intuition. The clouds in his vision, like the “Cloud Dragon” shifting with the weather, took on a life of their own. They chased after boats and expelled a mist that shrouded everything in a hazy veil. To Tom, the clouds were no longer just clouds; they felt like a giant dragon breathing mysterious life into the world, or perhaps taking it away.
To recreate the reality that he had seen for his viewers, Tom employed various techniques such as exaggeration, substitution, and tweaking of details, colors, and brightness to make the subject more mysterious. He combined the inherent allure of nature with the reality that the artist had witnessed to create alternative versions. From the sky of Vung Tau, Tom takes the viewers through space-time portals, exploring different worlds and universes, even though the landscape in the images seems familiar.
Throughout his life, Tom Hricko has been closely associated with film photography; however, he is also open to digital technology in photography. Despite being only familiar with film and darkroom techniques, he switched to using digital cameras and learned how to adjust to achieve desired results. Tom is also interested in exploring modern photo editing tools, also Hoa Ta VG-Lab. To him, whether it’s film or digital photography, there is not much difference in quality – just different methods, much like watercolor and oil or acrylic paint, which are distinct materials.
Sharing his thoughts on the proliferation of images today, especially selfies that accompany the explosion of smartphones and social media, Tom finds this phenomenon quite interesting. Among the countless images, many are shallow and lack depth. They are more about looking at some kind of image and the personality harbored within them. But whether we like it or not, no one can escape this trend.
Above all, the photography that Tom and many other professional photographers pursue still establishes their own values in life and art. As a result, Tom advised his audience to view and appreciate the images, saying: ‘Slow down and don’t look at the pictures but look into the pictures and see what they reveal to you, and you may be surprised’.”
—
Writer: Liên Võ for Hoa Ta
Editor: BB Trương
Hoa Ta interviews Tom Hricko
Purchase the artist's prints via our online store
