Toby Burrows grew up in colourful Paddington during the 1970s and was immersed in art from a very young age. His first passion was painting, which he studied at Sydney College of the Arts. Four years living and working in London fuelled his interest in photography and on returning to Sydney he began to build an eclectic collection of personal and commissioned work.
A force to be reckoned with, Toby’s energy and vivacity behind the lens makes him an exceptionally talented portrait photographer. Both charming and disarming, his natural ability brings out the candid personality of his subjects, exposing that telling glint in the eye, the curl of a lip, furrowed brow – the nuance of expression which gives away more than a thousand words could describe. His portraiture is marked by a bold exuberance, a joie de vivre, whilst his personal work focuses on wider narrative and landscape context which tips into the ethereal and the surreal. Toby’s belief that there is a simplicity and honesty in the relationship between photographer and subject means that he approaches his work with an authenticity – setting it apart through permitting him a unique access to capture the souls of his subjects rather than just the artifice.