Alys Tomlinson

Alys Tomlinson was born in 1975 and grew up in Brighton, UK. After a degree in English Literature, she went on to study photography at Central Saint Martins and recently completed an MA (Distinction) in Anthropology at SOAS, University of London.

Her major body of work ‘Ex-Voto’ (2016-2018) explores Christian pilgrimage sites in Lourdes (France), Ballyvourney (Ireland) and Grabarka (Poland). The works encompass formal portraiture, large format landscape and small, detailed still-life shots of the ex-voto objects and markers left behind.

She is currently working on 'Mother Vera' a feature length documentary film supported by the Sundance Institute, which focuses on one of the pilgrims whom she met in Grabarka, exploring her life at a convent in Belarus.

Alys lives and works in London. Selected recent awards include:

• Winner of Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2020;
• Nominee Prix Elysée 2020-2022;
• Rencontres d’Arles New Discovery Award 2019 Shortlist & Public Prize Winner;
• Photographer of the Year Award at the 2018 Sony World Photography Awards;
• 1st Prize (Discovery Category) at the 2018 Sony World PhotographyAwards.
• ’Ex-Voto’ was published by GOST Books in 2019.
• ‘Lost Summer’ was self-published in 2020.

Selected solo exhibitions include:

• The Faithful, Louis Roederer New Discovery Award, Les Rencontres d’Arles, Arles, France;
• Ex-Voto, Chichester Cathedral, Chichester, UK;
• Ex-Voto, Side Gallery, Newcastle, UK.

www.alystomlinson.co.uk