Jon Tonks is a British photographer based in Bath in the South West of England. His work focuses on telling stories about people’s lives shaped by history and geography.

Jon has an MA in Documentary Photography & Photojournalism from London College of Communication and his work has been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, Sunday Times, Telegraph and FT Weekend Magazines, the British Journal of Photography and more.

He has been shortlisted for the Taylor Wessing National Portrait Prize three times, twice for the Terry O’Neill award, and in 2014, Jon was presented with the Vic Odden Award by the Royal Photographic Society for his first book Empire – a journey across the South Atlantic exploring life on four remote British Oveaseas Territories. The book was hailed by Martin Parr as one of his best books the year.

Jon’s work is now in a number of private collections, both in the UK and abroad, including The Hyman Collection of British photography, and the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Texas.

On episode 127, Jon discusses, among other things:

• His recent cruise ship experience

• His book Empire

• Having to make your own fun

• Enjoying the disconnect

• Using limitations to be more creative

• The Vanuatu cargo cult story

• How his project about pubs has been shelved by Corona virus

• Justified naps

• Reactions to the current crisis

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