Hunter, Tom

1965

Artist Tom Hunter has spent over 40 years living in Hackney. He moved to London from Dorset and was initially a tree surgeon for a couple of years. He moved to Hackney in the mid-1980s and took a photography course at Chats Palace. From this he developed and pursued his passion for photography and went on to document community life around him. Similar to many other creatives at the time, he squatted in Hackney and embedded himself into local life. The relationships be built up helped him capture the experiences people were facing at the time. In 1997 Hackney Museum was the first public organisation to add Tom Hunter's work to its collections, later followed by many others across the world.

In 2023 Tom Hunter and fellow photographer Sue Andrews co-curated a photography exhibition with Hackney Museum showing 50 years of local life through the lens of many different local photographers. The exhibition also featured Tom's iconic model of the Holly Street estate, the last chance to view it in the borough before it went to the Museum of London.