Pilot Ship, Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu, 2017
Born in Sutton Coldfield in the West Midlands (UK) in 1981, Tonks originally studied as a product designer before becoming a staff photographer on a local Midlands newspaper in 2005.
In 2007 he undertook an MA in Photojournalism & Documentary Photography at London College of Communication and now works for a variety of editorial and commercial clients, with his work appearing in The Sunday Times, Guardian and FT Weekend Magazines, Monocle, TIME LightBox, British Journal of Photography and more.
His work has been shortlisted twice for the Taylor Wessing National Portrait Prize and the Terry O'Neill award, he was Judges Choice at the AOP Awards in 2012 and was a winner at the Magenta Foundation Flash Forward Awards the same year. Tonks was also presented with the 'Vic Odden Award 2014' by the Royal Photographic Society for his first book Empire, it was released in December 2013 and nominated by Martin Parr as one of his best books the year.
His work has been shortlisted twice for the Taylor Wessing National Portrait Prize and the Terry O'Neill award, he was Judges Choice at the AOP Awards in 2012 and was a winner at the Magenta Foundation Flash Forward Awards the same year. Tonks was also presented with the 'Vic Odden Award 2014' by the Royal Photographic Society for his first book Empire, it was released in December 2013 and nominated by Martin Parr as one of his best books the year.