Artist Statement

My work investigates how interior experience becomes visible through the relationship between the male figure, surrounding environments, and material surfaces. Through photography and layered imagery, I create spaces where vulnerability, strength, intimacy, and uncertainty coexist. Rather than documenting a moment, I construct images that invite contemplation of what lies beneath outward appearance.

While my earlier work focused primarily on the figure itself; over time my practice has expanded to explore the relationship between body and environment. Branches, fabric, architecture, reflections, and shifting light become active participants in the image, suggesting states of tension, support, concealment, and connection. I am drawn to moments where balance is implied rather than assured, and where the boundaries between self and surroundings begin to soften.

Although the male figure remains central to my work, it functions less as portrait than as a universal presence through which broader questions of identity, perception, and belonging can be explored. The images avoid fixed narratives, allowing ambiguity to become an essential part of the viewing experience. I invite viewers to inhabit the photograph rather than observe it from a distance.

Recently, my practice has begun moving toward an even greater integration of figure and landscape through shadows, reflections, and superimposed imagery. This evolution reflects a growing interest in the idea that we are not separate from the natural world but expressions of the same living field. Rather than depicting the body within a landscape, I am exploring ways the body can dissolve into it, allowing identity, place, and consciousness to exist as a single interconnected experience.

Ultimately, my work asks how photography can reveal not only what we see, but how we experience being present—held between exposure and concealment, solidity and impermanence, self and world.

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Artist Biography

Tom Moore is currently based in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, after many years in Philadelphia. In addition to his artistic practice, he has taught photography, curated exhibitions, and led fundraising initiatives for several non-profit organizations. Moore has served on the boards of AIDS Delaware, Tilt Institute for the Contemporary Image, The Photo Review, and The Print Center. His work has been exhibited in numerous galleries and is included in public collections such as the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania State Museum, and Lehigh University. A full résumé is available upon request.

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Education

MFA Photography, University of Delaware, Newark, DE

BA Communications and Theatre, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA

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Collections

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA

The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, PA

Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA

Millersville University, Millersville, PA

EXHIBITIONS

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Solo

2023
Tea Dance 1980, Biello Martin Studio, Philadelphia, PA

1995
Apollonian Re-Views, The Lawrenceville School, Lawrenceville, NJ

1993
Apollonian Re-Views, Delaware Theatre Company, Wilmington, DE

1991
Recent Work, Moore College of Art, Philadelphia, PA

1989
Staged Portraits, Book Trader Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

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Group

2026
NEW NOW IX, InLiquid Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

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11th Annual Juried Photography Exhibition, Rehoboth Art League, Rehoboth Beach, DE

2025
holy.body, The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA

In the Soft Light, InLiquid Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

2018
Members Exhibit, Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, Philadelphia, PA

Innovative Means Photography from the Collection, The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, PA

2014
Philadelphia Photographers: 1975-1985, Santa Bannon Fine Art Gallery, Bethlehem, PA

2010
Daydream Nation, The Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, Philadelphia, PA

1994
Faculty Exhibit, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA

Group Exhibit, Carspecken-Scott Gallery, Wilmington, DE

1993
Photography Twelve, Perkins Center for the Arts, Moorestown, NJ

Photographs from the Collection of Carlton Willers, University of Iowa Art Museum, Iowa City, IA

Fronts + Backs, Paul Cava Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

Group Exhibit, Silver Eye Center for Photography, Pittsburgh, PA

1992
Group Exhibit, Trenton State College Gallery, Trenton, NJ

Group Exhibit, Puchong Gallery, New York, NY

Group Exhibit, Neikrug Gallery, New York, NY

Faculty Exhibit, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA

Group Exhibit, Kampo Cultural Center, New York, NY

Group Exhibit, Zone One Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

1990
Young Americans, F/Stop Gallery, Bath, U.K.

Imprints, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA

Imprints, The Print Center, Philadelphia, PA

Faculty Exhibit, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA

Dark Light, Susan Isaacs Gallery, Wilmington, DE

Group Exhibit, Zone One Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

1988
Fantasy, Illusion and Grotesque, Sykes Gallery, Millersville University, Millersville, PA

Group Exhibit, Port of History Museum, Philadelphia, PA

Persona, Level Three Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

Art Fighting AIDS, Port of History Museum, Philadelphia, PA

63rd Annual Competition, The Print Center, Philadelphia, PA

1987
Group Exhibit, Janvier Gallery, University of Delaware, Newark, DE

Selected Photographs, The Print Center, Philadelphia, PA

Photography Six, Perkins Center for the Arts, Moorestown, NJ

1986
Group Exhibit, Nexus Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

Fine Art Photography 86, North Museum, Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, PA

62nd Annual Competition, The Print Center, Philadelphia, PA

1984
Woo World Performance Views, Morris Gallery, The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA

1982
Woo World Performance Views, Marion Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

1980
Facing the Mask, University Gallery, University of Delaware, Newark, DE