Today we’d like to introduce you to Tom McCarthy.
Tom, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I’m a storyteller with a camera. I imply intensity with a visual medium. My photos are intended to get your attention: to make you think about the captured subject matter.
My work with a camera began with my love of drag bikes when I started racing in 1981. In April of that year, I captured my first images of motorcycle drag racing, then filed my first story and photos with the Motorcyclist’s Post, a New England Regional publication. This began my career covering the sport during the 1980’s.
In the 1990’s, as my participation in the sport increased, so too did my coverage and I became more serious about my photography. I bought my first good 35mm camera in 1993 and became immersed in journalism without any formal schooling. I started freelancing as both a photographer and writer doing a lot of work for motorcycle magazine publications like American Iron, Quick Throttle, The Motorcyclists Post, Motorcycle Performance magazine and many others.
In 1993, after being laid off as a welder one too many times, I began freelancing in drag racing full time. While getting serious about my new vocation, I enrolled in the New England School of Photography in 1997 and graduated the Applied program in June of that year. This also began my entry into the art world. That summer I hosted my first art exhibition, “Reflections of Laconia” at the Belknap Mill, in Laconia, NH. The solo show, which hung during the month of Bike Week, was a big hit and the gallery invited me back again the following year. In 1998, I completed the second exhibition with the Belknap Mill.
Freelance work continued in earnest until 2001. That same year, I produced a solo gallery show as an honored Alumnus at the New England School of Photography in their Gallery 1 area. Life and its necessities pulled me away from my art during the year 2001. The inevitable return to the calling came to me in 2012, when I decided to retire from motorcycle drag racing competition and further my photography. This was the year I purchased my first digital SLR camera and began acclimating to the digital world
My growth as a photographer advanced exponentially in October of 2015, when I embraced the Canon product line and started concentrating on motorsports photography as one of the track photographers at New England Dragway, in Epping, NH. In recent years, major magazines in print and online such as Drag Illustrated, Drag Racing Online, DRAGBIKE.COM, Cycledrag.com, Girls N Garages, and The Motorcyclist’s Post have all published my photographs.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The transition from a serious part-time photographer/writer, to full-time professional is a rough one. It’s one thing to be using additional income to bolster paying bills, but quite another to suddenly be running a full-time business with your bill paying abilities 100% dependent on photographic income. Once you realize nothing is getting paid unless you get paid, it’s no longer an interesting endeavor you sometimes make money at. Now, it’s financial do-or-die!
This is when financial realities come to the forefront and I had to grasp the concept that only daily output can generate income and then come the books and taxes. The struggle is paying attention to business while not letting the realities and demands of business, stifle one’s creativity.
To be an artist and create art is to let one’s soul come through and speak through your work. To not let the drudgery drown out the creative inner voice; that’s the hard part. This is essential to be who you really are as an artist.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Tom McCarthy Photography – what should we know?
Tom McCarthy Photography really is my endeavor as a storyteller with a camera. For example, if I’m shooting Senior Portraits of a high-school student, I prefer to shoot on location and bring to life what the client wants, not what I think he or she needs. So I end up telling their story through my images, as they see themselves.
While I enjoy writing and telling stories about all manner of things, my passion is my photography. I’m very well known as a motorsports magazine contributor. When I tell the tale of a young lady drag racer, determined to make it in the world of motorsports, my images and writings complement one another. This is what sets me apart from other photographers and writers; I get to combine both worlds to tell a story.
I am most proud of my work when I interview someone on a topic and work with them to tell their story and get it right the first time. When they see it in print and say “You nailed it” that’s what makes me feel complete. Compelling stories and images best give the reader something to relate to.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
We are each unique in our own way. As a photographer, I am constantly seeking new ways to create the images I see in my mind’s eye. What I strive to do is capture images that make people think.
When my work makes people suddenly see or learn something they didn’t know before, this is success to me; to open someone’s eyes, mind or heart to something new.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://tommccarthyphotography.com/index.html
- Phone: 5082076878
- Email: bigft5131@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigft5131/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Tom-McCarthy-Photography-493875830722935/
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