Tom Wood

Tom Wood (born 14 January 1951) is an Irish born photographer and artist, based in Wales. Wood is best known for his photographs in Liverpool and Merseyside from 1978 to 2001, "on the streets, in pubs and clubs, markets, workplaces, parks and football grounds" of "strangers, mixed with neighbours, family and friends." His work is represented in the collections of major collections and museums worldwide.

Life and work Wood was born in Crossmolina, County Mayo in the West of Ireland. He trained as a conceptual painter at Leicester Polytechnic from 1973 to 1976. Extensive viewing of experimental films led him to photography, in which he is self-taught. with an approach "much more fluid than the current conventions of post-Conceptual photography or photojournalism dictate". In 1978 Wood moved to Merseyside, and in 2003 to North Wales He has returned to the west of Ireland every year since his family left. This was followed by All Zones Off Peak (1998), which featureds in The Photobook: A History vol. 2 (2006). All Zones Off Peak includes photographs from 18 years of riding the buses of Liverpool during his 1978 to 1996 'bus odyssey'—the images selected from about 100,000 negatives. People (1999), and the retrospective book Photie Man (2005), made in collaboration with Irish artist Padraig Timoney, followed. His work is included in the revised edition of Bystander: A History of Street Photography (2001).

Wood's first major British show, Men and Women, was at The Photographers' Gallery in London in 2012. and quotes photographer Simon Roberts saying Wood's photographs "somehow combine rawness and intimacy in a way that manages to avoid the accusations of voyeurism and intrusion that often dog work of this kind." Phill Coomes of BBC News wrote that "wherever they were taken or made, his pictures seem always to have a trace of human existence, and at their centre they are about the lives that pass through the spaces depicted."

Publications Looking for Love: Chelsea Reach. Manchester: Cornerhouse, 1989. . All Zones off Peak. Stockport: Dewi Lewis, 1998. . With an afterword by Mark Holborn. People. Cologne: Wienand, 1999. . English and German text. Tom Wood. Saar, Germany: Galerie im Buergerhaus Neunkirchen, 2000. . Exhibition catalogue. English and German text. Bus Odyssey. Ostfildern-Ruit, Germany: Hajte Cantz, 2001. . Exhibition catalogue. With an essay by Sylvia Böhmer. German and English text. Not Only Female…. Cologne: Schaden, 2004. . Exhibition catalogue. With an essay by Joerg Bader, "Broken English Working Class Hero", in English and German. Photie Man. Göttingen: Steidl, 2005. . F/M. Villeurbanne, France: 205. . English and French text. With a preface by Gilles Verneret and text by Durden Mark. Edition of 750 copies. A subset of photographs from Photie Man. Men and Women. Göttingen: Steidl, 2012. . A two volume collection. The DPA Work. Göttingen: Steidl, 2014. A two-volume collection, one on Rainhill Hospital in Liverpool (1988–1990) and one on Cammell Laird shipyard (1993–1996) in Birkenhead, commissioned by the Documentary Photography Archive. Termini. Guingamp, France: Gwinzegal, 2018. . With three short texts by Paul Farley. Women's Market. London: Stanley/Barker, 2018. . Photographs of the Great Homer Street market (Everton), 1978–1999. Edition of 1000 copies. 101 Pictures. Bristol: RRB, 2020. Selected by Martin Parr, edited and sequenced by Padraig Timoney. Edition of 1500 copies. People of the Lane. Living in and around Lark Lane, 1880-2020. An oral history by Kay Flavell: Introduction by Bryan Biggs, 28 color photographs by Tom Wood. Vallejo: New Pacific Studio, 2021. ISBN 978-0-578-70934-5. Snatch out of time. Tokyo: Super Labo, 2022.

Awards Terence Donovan Award, Royal Photographic Society, Bath, 1998 Prix Dialogue de l'Humanite, Rencontres d'Arles, France, 2002

TV appearances What Do Artists Do All Day? (BBC, 2014)

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions International Centre of Photography, New York, 1996. All Zones off Peak, Gallery of Photography Ireland, 1999. Kasseler Kunstverein, Kassel, Germany, 2002. Stadtische Galerie, Wolfsburg, 2002. Kunsthalle, Wilhelmshaven, 2002. Photieman, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, 2003 Sad Beautiful Life, C/O Berlin, Berlin, Germany, 2003. Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen, Germany, 2004. 2005: Photieman, Le château d’eau, pôle photographique de Toulouse, Toulouse, France. Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam, Amsterdam, 2005. 2005: Looking for Love, Musée de l'Élysée, Lausanne, Switzerland (with Larry Sultan). Men and Women, The Photographers' Gallery, London; Tom Wood – DPA Work, Contemporary Art Space Chester, University of Chester, Chester, 2013. (Photographs of Rainhill Hospital (1988–1990), commissioned by the Documentary Photography Archive (DPA), Manchester and made before the closure of the institution. Landscapes, Oriel Mostyn, Llandudno, Wales, 2014. Curated by Mark Durden. Photie Man: 50 Years of Tom Wood, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 20 May 2023 – 7 January 2024. A retrospective, curated by Charlotte Keenan.

Group exhibitions The Sidewalk Never Ends: Street Photography Since the 1970's , Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 2001/2002 Photography Collection: Rotation 3, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2006. Every Man and Woman is a Star: Photographs by Martin Parr and Tom Wood, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 2013. With Martin Parr.

Collections Wood's work is held in the following public collections: International Centre of Photography, New York: 1 print (as of May 2019) Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL: 4 prints (as of May 2019) National Photography Collection, National Science and Media Museum, Bradford Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, Frankfurt a. M.