Born in Astoria, New York, now residing in Delray Beach, Florida, Tommi's history includes family-owned Italian restaurants, a career as a commercial photographer, and a photofinishing retail business in Manhattan.
Although the restaurants paid all the bills, the time spent running them was very draining on his family and personal life. Photography was always his first love and he eventually built it into a full-time business and was then able to devote more time to his craft.
His encouragement was fueled by the acceptance of some of his images which appeared on several covers of Woman's Day Magazine.
His commercial photography included work for: IBM, and Levi Strauss Jeans, along with corporate annual reports and for manufacturers in the garment industry.
He built his first diorama in the 80s but was too busy with his businesses to devote any time to making more of them. When he sold his photography business and moved to Florida, he was encouraged by another artist to continue to build others. His background in the food business influenced some of his dioramas.
His work is done on a 1" to 12" scale.