Tommy Ga-Ken Wan

Tommy, 27, Glasgow. Photographer working internationally in theatre, opera, film sets and whatever else comes my way. Resident judge on The Big Shot (Channel 5, Singapore). "Ga-Ken Wan follows his own fascinations and doesn't flinch from the challenges...photographs which capture something of the modern urban experience." - The Scotsman "His eye has a way of alchemizing every social encounter into something at once synaptic and fresh, yet cool and composed... the hipper, headier, film-version of our lives." - Lock Up Your Daughters

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I don’t think we’ll make it to Sunday school today, boys. Glasgow, 2015.

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Murphy. Ayr, 2015. 

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Photographed during the descent into Glasgow airport, the plane windows seems to make their own tilt/shift effect. 

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Happy Valley, Hong Kong. 

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DANCE to the beat of YOUR OWN DRUM. Hong Kong, 2015.

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Prior to the premiere of Scottish Opera's revival of Ines de Castro, press and donors enjoy a performance by one of the companies emerging artists in the stunning, newly-built lobby of Glasgow's Theatre Royal. 

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A pleasure to be profiled by such a high-profile publication as L'Officiel, this from the February 2015 edition. 

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Rik and Annie. Glasgow, 2015.

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Hi All! Apologies for my absence from Tumblr over the last while. I recently got Instagram - where I can be found under the name TGKWAN - but I'm going to start posting here again too. Thanks for following! 

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Peter. Glasgow, 2014.

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It was announced last month that the Glasgow-based theatre company Untitled Projects will not receive core funding from Creative Scotland for the next three years. As a result, the office will close next month and the company forced into hibernation. Of why and what this means - of the treacherous conditions of arts funding in which this decision was taken; of the loss to the arts in Scotland; of the troubling questions raised concerning Creative Scotland's decision-making process - Joyce McMillan has written with greater knowledge and keener insight than I'm able, and her analysis can be read at (http://www.scotsman.com/what-s-on/theatre-comedy-dance/joyce-mcmillan-funding-concerns-at-elite-level-1-3633663). For my part, I wished to set down some personal remarks and to express the love and gratitude I have for Untitled Projects.  Stewart Laing, the Artistic Director of Untitled Projects, is often embarrassed by my proclamations that he more than anyone else has been instrumental to my own success. In my early twenties - then more obsessive hobbyist than professional, scraping by in part-time work at a law firm while taking whatever photography jobs I could find - I met Stewart through an actor friend, and he commissioned me to photograph one of his shows. I'm eternally grateful for that, for the leap of faith involved in asking me - at that time so young and inexperienced - to photograph something I'd never photographed before. When other companies saw what I had done for Stewart, my workload snowballed and I haven't set foot in a law office since. Stewart's modesty in relation to this is belied by the pack of young artists who consider him a mentor and who say exactly the same thing: that the faith Stewart had in them, that the encouragement and opportunities he gave them, have been the making of them.  I know this because many of them are among my closest friends, testament to the fact that Untitled Projects is not just a hotbed of artistic talent and spirit, but of friendship and love: a family. These attachments are not, of course, dependent on Creative Scotland funding. They are, however, bonds of a unique sort - forged in the hearths of creative passion and tempered by the collaborative spirit of Stewart's vision - and it saddens me to think that a new generation of young artists have been denied that experience.  Untitled projects has given me not just a start; not just some of the most creatively rewarding work I've ever done; not just some of the highest points of my professional life, but some of the happiest times in my personal life. For now, I can only join others in decrying Creative Scotland's decision to deny funding to Untitled Projects, and in hoping that the company will somehow emerge from what I have described as hibernation. At this crossroads for Stewart, I raise a glass to all that he has achieved and take some small consolation in knowing that, as the Untitled Family pursues its freelance work elsewhere, we will continue to try to raise the standard of all that we do.

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'Sanguine' Oil on Canvas

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Chris Silver's marvellous portrait of my very own visage.

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Me, to my old friend Jeff: “I finally got round to watching ____. It’s excellent!” Jeff: “Well, I did tell you that about five years ago.”

This is a conversation we have on an almost weekly basis. Perhaps it really does take me years to finally get round to immersing myself in the things that he recommends to me, or maybe it takes me a few more years to mature to the point where my tastes are as… whatever-his-are, as his are.

Among the most recent additions to the list of novels, movies, entertainers which have featured in that conversation template is the Canadian actor Nathan Fillion. Between binge-watching his works, I looked out and reworked this photograph I took of him. Taken in Kettner’s in Soho in 2009, we were celebrating the success of Complete Hero, a project by our mutual sometime collaborator, the artist Martin Firrell. At one point, I asked Nathan for an autograph for Jeff and, taking the receipt for our last round of drinks, he wrote on the back of it something along the lines of “Jeff, stay shiny, Nathan Fillion” which to this day hangs on Jeff’s wall. I now regret that I didn’t get one for myself, but perhaps our paths will cross again someday.

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Last weekend in The Hydro, 12,000 people gathered to hear Scotland's newly appointed First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon. Tickets to the event sold out more quickly than those for Lady Gaga and Kylie Minogue at the same venue. Whether you agree with the politics of the SNP government, it's a sign of how politically energised Scotland is, at a time when the rest of the UK is sinking further into political apathy and cynicism. I suspect the only way David Cameron could attract such a crowd to see him would be if he was in the stocks. Glasgow, 2014.

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Scott. Glasgow, 2014.

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The membership campaign I shot for The Barbican is live now, and these posters can be seen across London. It seems unlikely I'll be able to make it down to the capital to see them in the flesh, but I'm sure they look good!

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Michael Popper in a production still from Cryptic's These Delicate Things by Josh Armstrong. Glasgow, 2014.