Lee Tonks Bio

I was launched into the world on March 26th 1970 in England. I remember it as though it were yesterday, the bright lights, the doctor sscreaming, smacking me, all that commotion and I’ll never forget the look on my mother's face when she first set her eyes upon my pink gooey being and cried “My God, he‘s ugly”. She got over the initial shock and a few weeks later, came back to the hospital to collect me.

Between the ages of 11 and 21 life seemed to be a series of trips tojail, court hearings and all of the other trappings that go with being a juvenile delinquent. There wasn’t much opportunity for art and photography until one day, when I was 16 years old, I found a 35mm SLRcamera that had inexplicably fallen off the back of a truck. I of course gladly claimed it as my own and from that day onwards, the camera never left my side. I constantly took photos, there was no thought behind it, no training, I didn’t know what I was doing or even why I was shooting,
it was like a compulsion.

The only thing I was good at as a child, was boxing. I started my career when I was 4 and at the age of 15, I met Don and Carl King. They were very impressed with my ability and my accomplished career up until then and told me that if I ever wanted to turn professional, I should come and see them in America. That day would come, but not for another 5 years. 5 more years of life on the streets. Oh happy days!

At the age of 20, I decided that it was time to change the way I lived, Marlybone Magistrates was beginning to feel like home and I couldn’t walk the streets of London without getting stopped and harassed by the police, in all fairness, they probably had good cause to torment me. As I sat and considered my life, recognizing exactly where it was heading, I kept thinking about Don and Carl King's offer and decided that I would cut my loses, take a chance and cross the Atlantic. I spent many years training at one of the most respected boxing camps available and followed a promising professional career until I simply got tired of the
insidious side of the boxing world. Throughout these times and experiences I never stopped taking photos, It was as though I was documenting my own life through print. As a writer would put pen to paper to tell a story, I used my camera.

There is no denying that photography has always been the medium I have used to express my thoughts and perspectives and with the guidance of some of the greatest photographers today; Julia Dean, Loren Hammer, Aline Smithson and Douglas Kirkland to name a few, I feel that my work has a true voice of its' own. Maybe you will love it, Maybe you will hate it, what I hope, is that you debate it - then I have done my job.