Todd R. Darling grew up in Wayne, New Jersey. He is now based in Hong Kong where he’s lived for twenty years. He began his career photographing the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong for Polaris Images in 2014 and studied Documentary Practice and Visual Journalism at the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York City. In 2017, he returned to his childhood home in New Jersey to attend ICP and completed a photo series which became a book that he self-published titled Idyll on Paterson, a city that was close to his heart and home. Inspired by local poets William Carlos Williams and Allen Ginsberg, Idyll is a lyrical interrogation of the American dream but the pictures also represent the photographer’s fresh clear-eyed look at the home he left many years before.

Darling is currently studying photography with the Savannah College of Arts and Design and living back in Hong Kong. Since 2017, he has received numerous recognitions for his work on Paterson including a Documentary Arts Fellowship, the British Journal of Photography breakthrough award where his work was featured on the cover of the magazine, the 8th Annual PDN exposure award, the Rita K. Hillman Award of Excellence from ICP, and most recently his book Idyll received a silver medal from the Paris Photo Prize. His work on Paterson was also the subject of a PBS television special.

Darling’s work on Paterson and Hong Kong has been published in the Guardian, Time, the British Journal of Photography, Hong Kong Free Press and others, and exhibited in Asia and Europe including at the Breda Photo Festival.