10/13/2023
Tompkin's Art a Spiritual Journey
Excerpts from Galen C. McBride
-Rappahannock News Staff Writer
With freelance photographer Charlie Charles Tompkins Photography of Washington, Virginia, it is hard to tell where the art begins and the man leaves off, where technology merges with the spiritual and transcends the simple mechanics of snapping shutters and exposing film. “There is a big artistic component to my personality,” he explained, a metaphysical side that makes photography “more than a career. Photography is a part of who I am.”
Tompkins’ Main Street gallery of traditional black-and-white photographs is a haven from what he calls “the yamma-yamma of modern life.” Each picture is a little slice of time and emotion, frozen forever in metallic silver. Photographs, unlike paintings or sculpture, “take you where the artist was emotionally at the time. You are drawn to see the world as the artist saw it.”
The many land- and riverscapes on display in the gallery reflect this concept of “emotional reality.” In some, like “Jackson Falls - downstream, August 1992,” the feeling of rushing water is so intense that a sensitive viewer can actually feel the movement and icy coldness of the water. What is truly remarkable, though, said Tompkins, is that “the place does not really look like that.”
Tompkins compared the experience to hearing songs recorded by different artists. Though the words and music are the same, each singer - Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, or Peter, Paul and Mary - brings his own perspective to the recording and affects the listener in a unique way.
Tompkins credits much of his skill and artistic interpretation to his one-time teacher and mentor, Ansel Adams. By observing Adams, he learned to take his art seriously. Much of what Adams taught dealt with “getting your priorities in order” without becoming distracted by the minutia of day-to-day living. To Tompkins, this was an experience that touched his soul. Studying with Adams was a “lesson in being spiritually focused on what you’re doing. I don’t even think I realized how important this was to me for a year or two” after completing the workshops.
From Adams, too, Tompkins learned many of the finer points of his craft. His introduction to Adams’ zone system led to a deeper understanding of pre-visualization and rendering of tones in a print - and the artistic maturation of his work.
Tompkins also discovered that, over time, a photographer “becomes more sensitive and responsive to (the presence) of light” because photography itself is very light sensitive. Referring to one of his photos, the “Church of God of Prophecy” located on U.S. 29 near Warrenton, Tompkins said, “I drove by it for 20 years (almost without seeing it). Then, one day the light was perfect, like God was shining a spotlight on it. I nearly had a wreck.” This photograph exhibits a sharpness and clarity that almost leaps off the paper. “Fortunately,” he added, with his characteristic sense of understatement, “I had my gear.”
This razor-sharpness underlies all of Tompkins’ work, whether photographs of musicians, landscapes or misty waterfalls. “When I was younger, I could see the hairs on a gnat. I don’t like soft, out-of-focus pictures.”
After nearly 60 years and thousands of pictures, his focus is on a sorting and organizing his photographic archives into what he calls “his body of work” that will document his role as an artist for future generations. Besides compiling separate portfolios based on themes, Tompkins is also preparing an upcoming show in his gallery.
“A quest for spirituality led me to this,” he said. “In this phase of my life, I know I can’t change the world, but I hope that (my art) will influence it a little bit.”
-Charlie Tompkins
