Tom Wood

Tom Wood was born in 1951, in County Mayo in the west of Ireland.
Wood studied Fine Art at Leicester Polytechnic 1973 -1976. Extensive viewing of experimental films led him to photography, in which he is self taught.
He moved to New Brighton, Merseyside in 1978 and for the next 25 years photographed constantly in and around Liverpool, on the streets, in pubs and clubs, markets, shipyards, parks and football grounds.

Many of these long-term, overlapping series have evolved into books:-
Looking For Love(1989) made at the Chelsea Reach nightclub (1982-85).
All Zones Off Peak (1998), photographs from 18 years (100,000 negatives) riding the buses of Liverpool. The seminal Photie Man (Steidl, 2005).
Men and Women (2013). Women’s Market, Termini (2018), Mères, Filles, Sœurs (2019), the retrospective 101 Pictures (2020) the 50 year in the making Irish Work (2021).
The 3 volume DPA Work, (Shipyard and Hospital series) is awaiting publication by Steidl.

All Zones Off Peak features in the The Photo Book: A History vol.2 (2006). Three of Wood’s books, Photie Man, Bus Odyssey and Looking For Love are included in the internationally selected Source Photographic Review, The 150 Greatest Photobooks of All Time (2016).

Awarded “Prix Dialogue de l’Humanite”, Recontres d’Arles, 2002.
Subject of BBC 4 documentary, What do artists do all day? (2012).

Wood moved to North Wales in 2003 to continue an exploration of the landscape that began in Ireland in the 1970’s. His work is represented in the collections of major collections and museums worldwide.

Selected Solo/Joint Exhibitions:
2019 Mères, Filles, Sœurs, Recontres d’Arles, Jimei x Festival, Xiamen, China.
2017 Tom Wood: Britain in the 80’s, Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow.
2014 L’Été Photographique de Lectoure, Lectoure, France (with Matthais Bruggmann).
2013 Tom Wood Photographs 1973-2013, National Media Museum, Bradford. 2012 Men and Women, Photographers Gallery, London.
2005 Looking For Love, Musee de l’Elysee, Lausanne, Switzerland (with Larry Sultan).
2003 Gary Winogrand and Tom Wood’, Forum Fur Fotografie und Kunst, Köln, Germany.
1985 The Last Resort, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool (with Martin Parr).

Selected Group Exhibitions:
2018 Street Life:Seven Decades, The House of Photography, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Germany.
2015 Eyes Wide Open, Fotografie Forum, Frankfurt.
2013 Nothing in the Place, Bunkier Sztuki Contemporary Art Gallery, Krakow, Poland.
2007 How We Are: Photographing Britain, Tate Britain, London.
2006 Walk On, Shanghai Biennale, Salon Vogue, Shanghai, China.
2004 Schrumpfende Stadte, Shrinking Cities, Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany.
2001 The Sidewalk Never Ends, Art Institute of Chicago, USA.