Tom Quinn Kumpf grew up in a mixed, working-class neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He served with the US Navy in Vietnam and has since been deeply involved in conflict resolution and veterans' issues. He was part of a delegation of Vietnam veterans to visit the former Soviet Union, working with Soviet  veterans of the war in Afghanistan, and has worked in many other areas of conflict in the world.

Acting in response to his Irish roots, he went to Northern Ireland to document the effects of The Troubles on the children there. The award-winning book, Children of Belfast, is his collection of documentary essays and photographs about the lives of these children. His book, Ireland: Standing Stones to Stormont, focuses on Irish identity as it relates to Irish legend and the ancient landscape.  Two Sides, his most recent book, is a departure from Ireland and has a distinctive Japanese feel, resulting from three decades of studying the martial arts.

He is an internationally recognized, award-winning photographer whose work has appeared in numerous publications and in exhibitions throughout the US, Europe, and the former USSR. He works primarily in documentary, travel, and portrait photography and serves as a consultant for photo projects and exhibitions. He currently lives in Boulder, Colorado.

Exhibitions

20-20 Vision

The Icebox Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2008

Dancing Down a Dream: A Thirty Year Retrospective

The Icebox Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2005

Photographs by Tom Quinn Kumpf

The Camera Obscura Gallery, Denver, Colorado, 2004

The Highland Offices Gallery, Boulder, Colorado, 2002

Cuba Si

The Dairy Center for the Arts, Boulder, Colorado, 2003

Children of Belfast; Reclaiming Their Place among the Stones

Spokane Falls Community College, Spokane, Washington, 2002

Irish Heritage Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 2001

The Icebox Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2001

National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, 2000

Sidney’s Art Bar, Boulder, Colorado, 1998

The Trident Book Store, Boulder, Colorado, 1998

Standing Stones to Stormont; Irish Identity Reflected in an Ancient Landscape

Andrew J. Macky Gallery, Boulder, Colorado, 2001

Jan Bachman’s Studio, Boulder, Colorado, 2000

Sidney’s Art Bar, Boulder, Colorado, 1999

Images of Ireland

Dublin Irish Festival Cultural Center, Dublin, Ohio, 2001-2003

Dixon’s, Denver, Colorado, 2001

Odds & Ends: Photographs by Tom Quinn Kumpf

The Dairy Center for the Arts, Boulder, Colorado, 2001

Jan Bachman’s Studio, Boulder, Colorado, 1999

Haiku #4: A Collection of Photographs by Tom Quinn Kumpf

Sidney’s Art Bar, Boulder, Colorado, 2000

Mad Men and Mountaintops

Sidney’s Art Bar, Boulder, Colorado, 1998

Butterfly Herbs Gallery, Missoula, Montana, 1996

The Hockaday Center, Kalispell, Montana, 1995

Montana Faces

Heidelberg, Germany, 1995

Antwerp, Belgium, 1995

Rotterdam, Holland, 1994

Amsterdam, Holland, 1994

The Print Shop, Missoula, Montana, 1994

Butterfly Herbs Gallery, Missoula, Montana, 1993

Moscow, Russia, 1991

Learning to Celebrate Sugar: Russia Before and After the Coup

Spokane Falls Community College, Spokane, Washington, 1995

Miami-Dade Community College, Miami, Florida, 1994

The Silver Image Gallery, Seattle, Washington, 1994

Events Gallery, Los Angeles, California, 1994

The Village Gate, New York, New York, 1993

Missoula Art Center, Missoula, Montana, 1992

Butterfly Herbs Gallery, Missoula, Montana, 1992

Resume

Images Published in:

Represented by:

Zuma Press, Los Angeles, California — News agency and stock archive

Always Stock, Longmeadow, MA — Editorial photo stock agency

Canz Biz, Christchurch, New Zealand — Editorial photo stock agency

Awards:

Two Sides: Haiku and Other Words

Winner, 2007 DIY Book Festival, Photography/Art category

Winner, 2008 CAL Award for Poetry

Finalist 2008 Next Generation Indie Book Award for Photography

Finalist 2008 Next Generation Indie Book Award for Poetry

Ireland: Standing Stones to Stormont

Winner, 2005 Benjamin Franklin Book Award, Travel Essay category

Finalist, 2005 Benjamin Franklin Book Award, Art, Music, Photography category

Winner of the 2005 Writers Notes Book Award in the Art category

1st Place, Overall Design, 2004 Evvy Award, CIPA Book Awards

1st Place, Non-Fiction Essay, 2004 Evvy Award, CIPA Book Awards

Children of Belfast

Finalist, Best Pictorial of the Year 2000, Colorado Center for the Book

Winner, Jacket/Cover Design, the 2000 National Publishing Conference

National Publishing Conference

First Place & People’s Choice Award, the All Montana Artist Exhibit, Rotterdam, Holland, 1994

Northwest Winter Outdoor Sports Action Photo Competition

First Place & People’s Choice Award, Missoula, Montana, 1992

The Intervet Art Exhibition

First Place & People’s Choice Award, Moscow, USSR, 1990

Artist Statement

Unlike the painter who begins with a blank white canvas, the photographer strives to eliminate the non-essential elements of a scene from the final image. Through light, substance, and composition, we must select and shape reality in such a way that the eye is drawn to the subjective point of the print. The approach is intentional, a highly selective, discriminating, subtractive process.

There is nothing haphazard in what I photograph.  I do what I do on purpose. For me, photography is more than just a craft, a means of expression, and certainly more than just a hobby. It feeds me, provides balance, and takes up an essential part of every day of my life. Though I’m always open to new and exciting possibilities, my focus seems to narrow and become more concentrated with the passage of time. I find no contradiction in this, feeling instead that my scope and vision broaden as I take a more detailed look at the world around us.

Artists such as Georgia O’Keeffe, Dorthea Lange, Walker Evans, Lee Friedlander, and my long-time friend and teacher, Lee Nye, have had the greatest influence in my approach to photography. From my first portrait in 1973 through numerous exhibitions, assignments, an Irish postcard series, and two award-winning books, my focus has become much more direct, an approach and documentation that cuts through the limits of photojournalism.

Looking back over nearly thirty years of shooting, I see my life as more than just an interesting journey. Our world is full of paradoxes, contradictions, and absurdities. Yet it continues, changes constantly, and because of this, I see, the shutter clicks, and occasionally something of strength, beauty, and understanding is created. It is this process, the participation, that provides the passion that fuels me. With my art, as with my life, emphasis is placed on the pure and simple, the directness of living.

The Boulder Daily Camera

The Boulder Weekly

The Missoulian

The Butte Standard

The Boston Globe

Communication Inc.

The Anchorage Daily

Inform Magazine

The Bloomsbury Review

ForeWord Magazine

5280 Magazine

The World of Hibernia

Black & White Magazine

Doubletake

La Prensa

Outside Magazine

Backpacker

Mountain Gazette

Time

Irish American Post

Newsweek

Ireland of the Welcomes (Ireland)

Belfast Telegraph (Northern Ireland)

The Irish Times (Ireland)

Clare Champion (Ireland)

Pravda (Russia)

Le Devoir (Canada)

The Berliner (Germany)

R TV8 (Switzerland)

UTV (Northern Ireland)

RTV (Ireland)

Investigate.com (New Zealand)

NBA Magazine (China)

Stern (Germany)