Tom Hunter takes a look behind London’s façades and shows us how life there really is
The meticulously composed, painterly tableaux of Tom Hunter (*1965 in Dorset) operate on various levels: for one, he references important paintings from art history; for another, he tells us stories of our time—stories that all take place in the London borough of Hackney, where Hunter lives. What is perhaps his best-known photograph is of a young woman in a setting that alludes to Vermeer’s Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window. However, Hunter’s photo portrays a Woman Reading a Possession Order—a neighbor from the squatter’s scene who has just received an eviction notice. The work attracted so such attention from the media that the eviction ultimately never took place.
With his eye for the unusual and exotic in everyday life, Hunter succeeds in capturing striking, remarkable snapshots of life in Great Britain today.