Emerging talents in music aren’t always just about the, erm, musicians. There are other artists ploughing the field, like Tom Martin, a music photographer. As such, we decided to pick his brain a bit and find out about him and his art, peppered with some his work.

Here goes:::

Who are you and where are you from?

I’m Tom! I have been given a hole host of bizarre nicknames (Mullet, Tmoose and more recently Wierdog?!) over the years, but Tom will do fine! I’m originally from a small village called Sowerby which is on top of a big grey hill in Halifax. However I’ve lived in Leeds for the last five years and I love it.

How long have you been a photographer?

Well I first properly tried Black & White photography in 2004 so nearly 6 years now.
How and why did you get into photography?

Completely by accident really. Things weren’t going well at school during my A-Levels so I left (which at the time felt like the end of the world!). I didn’t want to completely give up on education though so I enrolled on a foundation Art & Design course at Bradford College. During this time I got to try photography and I loved it. I had a brilliant Tutor called Dave Rowling who gave me some wonderful advice and encouragement- everything I seemed to be missing at school. And that was it I knew it was what I wanted to do, so I guess I owe Dave a lot for my career really!

What kind of photos do you take?

Up until now its all been music really, live bands, posed bands, festivals, etc. But now I’m looking to develop more into editorial and fashion photography. I’ll continue to do music though it’s what I love doing most.

Which photographers do you admire and why?

I’m lucky enough to be friends with most of the photographers that really inspire me. I have to say Danny North really, he’s been a great friend and inspiration to me and I’m sure he’s saved my life on more than one occasion (after endangering it a whole load of times with his extreme location choices!).. He’s a bit of a genius really, definitely one of the best live music photographers in the world today, I have no doubt about that.

What has been your best experience as a photographer and why?

Shooting Glastonbury this year for the NME hands down. I was with a great team if people, got to take some amazing photos and was basically just in awe of the festival the whole time.

What do you want to do in you career in the future?

To travel more would be very nice!

Who would be your dream to photograph?

I don’t know, I guess you wouldn’t until you’d taken it?! Thats the exciting part really.

Pretty neat stuff here.

You can find more of Tom’s work here.