“My work is driven by the need to discover the ambiguity of everyday life, fascinated with the contradictions found within social and cultural landscapes.”
Skateboards to Shutter Clicks: A Journey Through Movement and Vision
The artistic story of Tom Marshak (Instagram) begins in the sunlit streets of his teenage years, skateboard wheels humming beneath him and a small film camera in hand. Growing up immersed in the skateboarding scene, Marshak intuitively recognized the visual power of movement and community. Through those modest cameras, he began documenting friends mid-air, tricks frozen in split seconds, and the raw culture surrounding them. This spontaneous act of capturing motion sparked what would later evolve into his lifelong exploration of photography.
In his twenties, Marshak stepped away from the lens, trading urban landscapes for the serene depths of the ocean as a diving instructor. The hiatus brought a transformative perspective, allowing him to explore new realms of observation and stillness. Yet his relationship with photography resurfaced, sparked by a significant relationship with a partner studying art. Inspired, he returned to photography and formally studied art and portraiture, disciplines that shaped his eye for human stories and nuanced compositions. This shift cemented his dedication to exploring themes of identity, memory, and the emotional ambiguity embedded in everyday life.
A pivotal milestone arrived with his relocation to London in 2020. The move not only introduced him to a thriving cultural hub but also gave rise to A Diary, his first published artist book. Culled from ten years of intimate photographic journaling, the book marked a celebration of time’s fragility, presenting everyday scenes as fragments of a broader narrative. Through his collaborations with notable brands like Vivienne Westwood and explorations of unique cultural events such as Croatia’s ancient pagan ceremonies, Marshak’s perspective deepened, capturing contrasts between the historic and the modern, the real and the surreal.
Tom Marshak: Between Documentary Realism and Dreamlike Abstraction
Marshak’s artistic style hovers between raw reality and poetic surrealism. His portraits—whether born from personal projects or commissioned work in music and fashion—reveal layers of complexity, turning subjects into echoes of fleeting moments. He expertly blends abstraction with realism, distorting human figures or environments to evoke an otherworldly quality. This duality, as he describes, reflects his view of the world: a balance of contradictions, where beauty emerges from the spaces between.
Light and color act as Marshak’s emotional tools. His mastery of vivid hues, soft textures, and unconventional framing enables him to draw viewers into a sense of heightened perception. By bending reality just enough to make it unfamiliar, his work invites audiences to pause and reimagine ordinary details. Whether capturing ancient traditions or street fashion, Marshak’s compositions emphasize simplicity while simultaneously holding emotional depth—an equilibrium that fuels the distinctive resonance of his images.
A particularly experimental technique Marshak employs is the physical manipulation of printed photographs. Using diluted acid, he distorts their surfaces, leaving hazy imprints that reflect the fragility and imperfection of memory. This approach not only brings a tactile dimension to his work but also reinforces his recurring themes: the impermanence of time, the ambiguity of identity, and the beauty of moments slipping into the past. Influenced by artists like Francis Bacon, Irving Penn, and Louise Bourgeois, Marshak challenges traditional photography by pushing its boundaries into painterly and sculptural forms.
Exploring A Diary: Ten Years of Life, Captured in Moments
One of Marshak’s most significant and ongoing works is A Diary, a deeply personal photographic series that began in 2011. Initially conceived as a way to document the everyday—the people, places, and landscapes shaping his life—A Diary grew into a sprawling visual archive, charting Marshak’s evolution as an artist and individual. Armed with analogue cameras, he embraced the unpredictability of film, capturing fleeting transitions in light, movement, and emotion. Each image serves as a fragment of a larger, unfinished story: a visual meditation on memory, change, and the passage of time.
The culmination of this project came in 2019 with the publication of A Diary as an artist book. Curating a decade’s worth of moments into a tangible narrative was an intimate act of reflection, allowing Marshak to explore his journey from multiple angles. The book’s launch at Maze9 Gallery in Tel Aviv and its subsequent appearances in prestigious venues like London’s White Chapel Gallery underscored its universal resonance. Through subtle imagery, Marshak reveals the quiet magic of ordinary life, turning forgotten glances and overlooked landscapes into poetic expressions of time’s complexity.
For Marshak, A Diary remains unfinished, an ever-evolving exploration of life’s transient nature. Each photograph—whether capturing a shifting season, a friend’s expression, or an unfamiliar street—becomes part of an ongoing dialogue between past and present. The project reflects Marshak’s belief that photography is more than an act of seeing; it is a way of connecting, remembering, and transforming the everyday into something extraordinary.
Tom Marshak: Embracing Imperfection and Connection Through Photography
In an age where immediacy often dominates creative processes, Marshak’s dedication to analogue photography offers a striking counterpoint. For him, shooting on film is an act of presence and patience, a way to embrace imperfection and honor the passage of time. The tangible nature of analogue images aligns with his interest in memory’s fragility—how moments become distorted yet meaningful as they fade. Yet Marshak is equally adept in the digital realm, seamlessly switching between methods depending on the story he wants to tell. This adaptability allows him to balance tradition with innovation, giving his work a timeless yet contemporary edge.
Marshak’s recognition within the art and photography world reflects the profound emotional resonance of his work. In 2021, the British Journal of Photography named him one of The Ones to Watch, highlighting his emerging influence in visual storytelling. Two years later, the Portrait of Humanity award further validated his exploration of human relationships, identity, and culture. For Marshak, these accolades serve not as endpoints but as encouragements to continue pushing boundaries—experimenting with abstraction, kinetic movement, and narrative tension.
Looking ahead, Marshak’s work remains rooted in curiosity and connection. Whether exhibiting at institutions like the Royal Geographic Society or collaborating with cultural icons like Yves Saint Laurent, his approach to photography remains consistent: to reveal the extraordinary in the ordinary. By layering light, color, and unconventional framing, Marshak invites viewers to see the world anew—to pause, reflect, and rediscover the beauty hidden within motion, texture, and relationships. Through his lens, photography becomes more than documentation; it is an act of wonder, discovery, and emotional connection.
