‘There’s beauty in contrast’: Tom Baker’s best phone picture

The photography student on embracing monochrome and capturing the unexpected

Tom Baker initially set out to photograph the wild rabbits that inhabit the University of Leeds campus, but their skittish nature was proving an issue. Seeking an alternative, he shifted his attention to a solitary crow perched on a car by the university’s Parkinson Building.

“Photography is implanted in my life,” says Baker, a final-year photography student at Leeds Arts University, just across the road. “My dad is the reason I became so passionate about it. He documents everything – we have a shed full of stupid cameras that don’t work. Whenever we had a moment, it wasn’t, ‘Let’s get together and take a family photo’ – the camera was already out.” This image of a stark black crow against ivory bricks is a departure from Baker’s usual monochrome portraiture. He started out shooting almost exclusively in colour, determined to prove wrong his father’s preference for black and white. But over time, Baker “fell in love with black and white photography. I began to recognise the beauty in contrast.”

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