Look around you | Photography Series
Context of work:
Litter has become a quiet epidemic in the UK and beyond — clogging streets, harming wildlife, and weighing on the collective mind. Though it surrounds us daily, much of it goes unseen, and our role in its growth often unacknowledged. Millions of discarded items — cigarette butts, food packaging, cans, and plastic — mark our routines each day.
In Look Around You, a magic realism photography series, Tom Walder confronts this excess and indifference. Every object pictured was collected directly from the streets of London, then transformed into surreal props and sculptures that exaggerate a reality we have learned to ignore. Shot on a Mamiya RZ67II, Londoners are placed face to face with the physical trace of their own consumption — a visual call to awareness, responsibility, and change..
Look Around you 1
Londoner sits by an illuminated cigarette butt pile while smoking a cigarette in a typical London evening. The subject is supposed to portray a middle-class woman just performing one of her habits without realising the impact that such a trivial act can cause in her surroundings. The image was taken at night with lighting designed to give it a sense of surrealism, following the artist's personal style. The pile was made by Tom Walder using all the cigarette butts and packaging collected in the streets. The light shed on the pile and its size are supposed to convey the idea of excess and give focus to the object.
Look around you 2
Londoner indulging in fast food after a hard day of work is swamped by garbage left in his own car. The subject is supposed to represent a typical man completely unaware of the huge amounts of trash he produces by simply carrying on with his own life. The photo is meant to suggest the exaggeration in the consumption of fast food which, in turn, generates one of the top 4 litter in the ranking of most produced in the UK, but also to provide the viewer with a sense of disgust. The photo was once again shot at night and the litter picked was used to wrap the interior of the car as well as to build the pile that is sitting next to the subject.
Look Around you 3
Londoner I is littering while Londoner II smokes a cigarette. Once again in this image, two common citizens are expected to be just performing a regular activity that causes a great impact on the environment, but with no awareness of their act. The image is also expected to suggest a certain negligence, or the turning of a 'blind eye' to the issue, which we find is the reality in our society. The photo was again taken at night so the lights used in contrast to the dark background propped by the artist himself, using black backdrop sheets, could transmit a feeling of surrealism to the series by making the subjects and objects of the photo be completely detached of the real scenery ( case in all photos of the series ). All the litter picked was used to surround the scene in a wave of garbage coming from litter that could have been dropped on the floor instead of inside the bins.
Look around you 4
Londoner is swamped by an accumulation of cans while drinking a beer. In the final image of the series, the garbage chosen was the cans that constitute another top level in the ranking of most produced litter in the UK. A man is bathing in a sea of cans, once again due to the artist's intention to demonstrate excess and hyperbole, while he is probably partying on a Saturday night. The image is supposed to create a sense of alarm and concern as to the pace of the litter accumulation. The photo was taken inside the house of the artist where he used the cans picked in the streets to create the props for the photo.