Legacy by Tom Willock

The Legacy exhibition showcases forty years of work by an exceptional photographer. From the mountains to the prairies, and from small towns to the city, these photographs reflect Tom Willock’s insatiable curiosity and deep engagement with the world around him.

As a fine art photographer based in Southern Alberta, Tom’s gelatin silver print photographs provide a compelling view of the region’s evolution over time. His strong technical expertise—spanning compositional arrangement, the taking of the photograph, and meticulous darkroom processes—is evident in his deliberate and thoughtful compositions. Expressive and creative, yet harmoniously in tune with the landscape or the subject, each image reflects a purity that underscores his exceptional skill.

Over the years, Tom has cultivated a continuity in his artistic vision, imbuing his work with a timeless quality that resonates deeply with viewers—often felt intuitively rather than consciously. Elegant and still, yet simultaneously decisive and responsive, his photographs offer fleeting glimpses into the eternal.

“My sense of myself is inseparable from the land. My photographs have no purpose, no intention, beyond the truthful expression of my own inner vision, reflections of human experience and the natural landscape. A quality of art is its simultaneous expression of particular and universal. For each of us, the expressive print will hold its own particular meaning and beauty.”

A native of Southern Alberta, Tom Willock has been photographing the region's landscapes, built environments, and wildlife since the 1960s, dedicating close to 40 years to working in medium and large format photography. A graduate of the University of Alberta and Carleton University, Ottawa, he began his career in natural history and photography at the National Museum of Natural Sciences, Ottawa (1968-70). Tom conducted Wildlife Impact Studies (1970-6) and later was a Sessional Instructor, Lethbridge Community College, in Wildlands Conservation (1971-3) and the Technician for the Dept. of Biological Sciences (1976-8) at the University of Lethbridge. He was also the Director of the Medicine Hat Museum and Art Gallery from 1978 to 1998 and served as a volunteer on numerous Alberta museums, heritage, and wildlife boards.

As a natural history photojournalist, Tom’s vast variety of wildlife and landscape images along with portraiture, aerial, and industrial photography are widely held in numerous national and international public and private collections. Tom is the author of the natural history book A Prairie Coulee (Lone Pine Press, 1991) and has written numerous articles on museums, photography, and natural history.