Tommy Trenchard

Tommy Trenchard is an independent photographer documenting human stories from around the world for a broad range of international magazines, newspapers and humanitarian organisations. The focus of his work ranges widely from conflict, humanitarian crises and social injustice to traditional cultures and artisanal livelihoods across the globe.

A boy surveys the ruins of a home in Macomia, Mozambique, after the area was hit by cyclone Kenneth in April 2019.

Since leaving Sierra Leone he has travelled widely, covering everything from cheese-making in the war-torn eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to the decline of Hong Kong’s neon industry to the weird and wonderful world of competitive giant vegetable growing in the UK. Major projects during this time include the Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh, the brutal battle against ISIS in Iraq, the global fight against preventable blindness, and the aftermath of cyclones Idai and Kenneth in Mozambique.

In 2017 Tommy spent several weeks on a remote Indonesian archipelago documenting the changing way of life of Indonesia’s Bajau “sea nomads”, sparking an ongoing interest in coastal communities around the world and their shifting relationship with the ocean. This continuing long-term project has taken him from the sea-cucumber fields of Madagascar to the fossil-strewn Jurassic Coast of southern England and the longline shark fisheries of the mid-Atlantic Ocean.

Dafrin Ambotang, a Bajau fisherman, free-dives for his dinner over a reef off Indonesia’s Togean Islands.

Since moving to Cape Town, South Africa, in 2019, Tommy has focused his lens on several grassroots initiatives aiming to redress the stark divisions that remain prevalent in the country long after the end of apartheid rule. He has also continued his work on coastal communities, exploring the fight to save the iconic African penguin from extinction as well as the decline of Cape Town’s small scale fishing industry.

Tommy is represented by the UK photo agency Panos Pictures, and his photos and accompanying written features have appeared in dozens of the world’s leading publications such as the New York Times, the Guardian, GEO, the Wall Street Journal, the BBC, NPR, Stern Magazine, the Sunday Times of London, Geographical, TIME Magazine and Newsweek. He also works regularly with international NGOs including Oxfam, Save the Children, Sightsavers, the IFRC and MSF.

His work has been recognised by several international awards including Pictures of the Year International, the NPPAs Best of Photojournalism, the International Photography Awards, the Amnesty International Media Awards, the Paris Photo Prize (Px3), the Alfred Fried Peace Photo Award and the World Report Award among others. He was listed among the top emerging photographers of 2015 and 2017 by the Magenta Foundation, featured in PDN’s photo annual for 2018 and named as one of Forbes Magazine’s ’30-under-30′ for media.