About

Tom Oelsner has been enjoying photography since childhood. He was given his first camera at the age of 8 and has been photographing ever since. Although he has had no formal training he has pursued his interest in photography through local and national workshops and various university courses. Tom Oelsner worked exclusively in black and white photography, shooting in 35mm as well as medium format until the advent of digital photography when he also started showing some color work. But his love is still primarily black and white and he has successfully adapted digital photography to black and white. In 2011 Tom started experimenting with digital images applied to slate. He developed an archival process of adhering traditional digital images to roofing slate using polyurethane. By taking on the wonderful texture of the surface of the slate the images seem to have greater depth. Some of these images are in color, others are black and white. Tom Oelsner is a physician who practiced at Touro Hospital for 40 years in Internal Medicine and Nephrology until his retirement in 2006. He was born in Germany and has lived in New Orleans since 1945.