Tom Williams is based in Wollongong, NSW. His work has been exhibited in Australia, South East Asia and Latin America, including The Reportage Festival of Photojournalism (2006 and 2008), Foto Freo, The Angkor Photography Festival in Siem Reap, Cambodia, The CCP Documentary Photography Award (2007 and 2009), Cross Projections, The Head On Photo Festival and Art & About (Sydney Life).
In 2009, he was awarded the 7th CCP Documentary Photography Award for his series 'Neighbourhood'.
Portside consists of images taken in both Port Kembla and Australia’s ninth largest town, Wollongong. Wollongong is made up of many facets: a hub of industry, a tourist town, a mining region and a commercial centre. The postcard coastline parallels one of the highest youth unemployment rates in Australia. Blast furnace number 6 at the steelworks was closed even before the resources boom started to wane.
Port Kembla © Tom Williams
It was only after years of photographing elsewhere that Williams came back to document that which was closer to home. « You tend to document events, phenomena, things happening. One day I drove down the road to Port Kembla and ran into a close friend from early childhood who was now a shell of her former self. I decided to dedicate two days per week...