Tom Upton

About the artist

1962 First Camera Kodak Brownie
We would get them from Father Christmas every year with complaints from Father Upton not to use them because the film and prints were too expensive. My sister and I would ignore this and use all the film and the flashbulbs by the end of the day. Requests for film continued and my Mother's gift of the Life Library of Photography only fueled my lust for a Single Lens Reflex camera. Much to my Father's dismay, my interest persisted and I traded him a full summer of construction work in the summer of 1969, for a Honeywell Spotmatic, my first Real Camera with numbers on the lens and a prism. I then studied the Zone system with my brother-in-law’s Nikon F!

1970 Pink Leiderhosen
The Zone Masters in Vermont did not believe in “built-in” light meters. I made a pilgrimage to New York City to trade in my brother-in-law's Nikon Photomic meter for a prism finder. Nobody at 47th Street would do it. A long-haired man in pink leiderhosen was standing next to me at the counter. He graciously offered to take me up on the deal. Turned out to be Ken Kay, a commercial studio photographer extraordinaire who did much of the work I had seen in the Life Library of Photography. I asked him for an assisting job but he explained that I needed to be educated first. Ken Kay said to get out of Vermont, and go to Art Center. So I did!

1975 and US Route 66
With my ’67 Slingerlands and Pentax Spotmatic in the back of my Olds F-85 wagon, I left for California. Well along Route 66, I looked back once (she was a Libra). I made my way to Art Center College of Design, where I actually learned great stuff from great people. Upon my matriculation as a BFA Photographer, and working the darkroom angle, I youthfully ignored the advice of my Art Center masters and evaded the ancient ritual of apprenticing to masters in Hollywood, and left town. L.A. got lonely.

1982 Political Asylum
In 1982 I sought political asylum in the Republic of Northern California, and opened my own studio in Jim and Mary’s Launderette, in Palo Alto. I had the good fortune to work with many of the best high technology companies in the Silicon Valley in the 80’s and 90’s. I have also locally exhibited work using the technology of pinhole photography and had it published in The Visionary Pinhole by Lauren Smith; Peregrine Press (1985). My self-promotional work has been published in Photo District News, and in the Art and Business of Creative Self Promotion by Jerry Herring and Mark Fulton; Watson-Guptill Publishing (1987). I have even won a smattering of awards. My crowning achievement to date is that in 2003 Megan Smith from Klutz Books deemed me King of Window Art Photography.

1983 First Computer
I started shooting for Apple Computer right away. I got my first Apple, an Apple III in 1983. It had UDOS on it (for Unuseable DOS). I sold it to a Persian Math professor from Pennsylvania (for a thousand bucks)! And I turned around and got an Apple IIe to run my business. I was happy because I could subscribe to a magazine about the Apple computer I owned.

1989 Photoshop
The computer graphics world between 84 and 89 was primitive and surreal. We all cheered when Photoshop arrived and were yet again spurred into buying yet another round of expensive computers. Computers and software were getting faster and better and made photography creative again. Photoshop proved so revolutionary that the National Enquirer wrote a letter of thanks to Adobe Systems. That settled it for me!

1997 Silicon Valley: Catching the Digital Wave
In 1997, I partnered with Applied Graphics Technologies and created digital photography studio at Jim and Mary’s with the Leaf DCB2 back. At this time the State of the Art was 4 Megapixel capture for 30 Grand. (Well, it was a virtually noiseless monochromatic sensor, with it’s own beauty). With the rise of high-end digital and the demise of analog wet processes I have doggedly pursued an abiding interest in fine printmaking for the digital photographs. For about a decade now we photographers have had to fork over 2 grand every 18 months to keep up with the minimum digital camera advancements; the same with inkjet printers.

In 2004
I did it again and this time, partnered with Solzer Studios (the remnants of the vaunted Solzer and Hail) in San Francisco to create a state-of-the-art, digital photography studio with the PhaseOne digital backs and full service prepress and printing under one roof. I also refined my CMYK. And this reinvigorated my years-long journey pursuing the Digital Fine Print Shamans. This has included workshop visitations with Dan Margulis, Nash Editions, Rods and Cones, Stephen Johnson, Charles Cramer, and Bill Atkinson. The journey has contributed to second a life as a fine art photographer, winning a Peninsula Artist Grant in January of 2002, to create an exhibit of personal work. Finally I can say the technology has matured and we can get better results than film with the gear that is available now. 

Now
I am relieved to say I have to move back into solo mode with a new studio now situated on San Francisco’s Potrero Hill. I am here with my PhaseOne, Canon DSLRs, and my Epson 4800 actively seeking visual thinkers and clients, for engaging and productive collaborations.

Contact information

Tom Upton
1501 Mariposa Street #310
San Francisco CA 94107
(415) 431-1111 S.F.
(650)-325-8120 Palo Alto
Email: tom@tomstudio.com
Web: www.tomstudio.com
 

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