Tom wood photographer biography book

“Tom Wood’s Photie Man (Steidl) is a mid-career collection that should help spread the word on this terrific but under-recognised British photographer. Working primarily on the street and in the pubs and clubs, Wood achieves an intimacy with his subject that’s at once rude and tender... no matter where he is Wood’s work always feels so loose, instinctive, and dead-on ...

Vince Aletti, Photograph, July/August 2005

“Photieman displays the heart and soul required to do justice to a city (Liverpool)... Wood’s pictures both celebrate and undermine Scouser archetypes. Catching the pulse of the city at play, they breathe a powerful life and unerring humanity into stock urban clichés.”

Irvine Welsh, Sunday Telegraph Magazine, London 15/5/2005

“I have followed his work over the years and I’m not surprised at the international reputation he is gaining. But what seems to me more important than this, is his capacity to enter, as an artist, into the profound, popular, often inarticulate but deeply human life of the people in the place he chooses to work in. He has ‘protected’ a Merseyside that is now eloquent and forever unloseable!”

John Berger, 2004

Condition: Sehr gut. Cornerhouse Publications, Manchester. 1989. First edition, first printing. Fantastic first book by one of the best english photographers ever! Softcover (as issued). 285 x 225 mm (8 3/4 x 11 1/4 inch). Photos: Tom Wood. Foreword by David Chandler. Text in english. Condition: Inside excellent; fresh and flawless, clean with no marks and with no foxing. Outside spine and rear cover very fresh, like new; front cover very fresh, with neat imperfections at the right edge (no dramatic). Overall fine, much more fresher than usual condition! Brilliant first book by the photographer of "All zones off peak" (Martin Parr, The Photobook, page 308). Tom Wood was born in 1951 in County Mayo in the west of Ireland. He lived and worked on Merseyside between 1978 and 2003 before he moved to his current home in North Wales. Wood has published numerous books, including Bus Odyssey, People, All Zones Off Peak and Looking for Love. He has had solo and group exhibitions worldwide and his work is represented in the collections of major museums.***************Cornerhouse Publications, Manchester. 1989. Englische Erstausgabe. Originalausgabe. Softcover. 285 x 225 mm. Fotos: Tom Wood. Vorwort von David Chandler. Text in englischer Sprache. Zustand: Innen sehr sch�n, nahezu neuwertig erhalten, sauber und tadellos ohne M�ngel. Aussen der R�cken und die R�cken super frisch, wie neu; die Vorderseite ebenfalls sehr frisch, aber am rechten Rand mit winzigem Abrieb. Insgesamt sehr guter Zustand, deutlich frischer als gew�hnlich! Brilliantes Erstlingswerk des grossartigen Fotografen, bekannt f�r B�cher wie "All zones off peak" (Martin Parr, The Photobook, Seite 308). Der geb�rtige Ire Tom Wood lebt seit 1978 in Liverpool. Seine neue Heimat hat er mit seiner Leica bis in die verborgensten Winkel durchleuchtet und so ein faszinierendes Portr�t der Stadt erstellt. Von Menschen an der Bushaltestelle bis hin zu alten M�nnern in der Psychiatrie. Sprache: Englisch G

Irish photographer

Thomas Wood (born 14 January 1951) is an Irish street photographer, portraitist and landscape photographer, based in Britain. 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 has been published in several books, been widely shown in solo exhibitions and received awards. He has a retrospective exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool until 7 January 2024.

Life and work

Wood was born and brought up in Crossmolina, County Mayo in the west of Ireland. His family left for England in his adolescence, when his mother, a Catholic, was forced away after marrying his father, a Protestant. 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. He has explored a "multiplicity of formally divergent themes and quotations" 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 where he works as a part-time lecturer in photography at Coleg Llandrillo Cymru.

Wood photographed mainly in Liverpool and Merseyside from 1978 to 2001, primarily street photography "on the streets, in pubs and clubs, markets, workplaces, parks and football grounds" of "strangers, mixed with neighbours, family and friends." At the same time he also worked on a long-term study of

The book is a concise and considered look back at Tom Wood's work selected by Martin Parr, edited and sequenced by Padraig Timoney.

»101 Pictures« is the first English language retrospective of Wood’s work, casting light on his 25 year long testament to the people of Merseyside. It includes previously unseen photographs, alongside major works such as the infamous nightclub series, »Looking for Love« (1989) and from his seminal »Photie Man« (2005) publication.

Padraig Timoney is a New York based artist and long standing collaborator with Tom Wood on many of his books. Padraig has contributed two paintings to the project, which will be printed onto cloth to form the book and slipcase covers.

"Many of the images that I have selected here are portraits; these are strong, albeit subtle and understated. Tom photographed whole families, groups of workers, couples and individuals, always conveying a sense of dignity and respect.” —Martin Parr.

“Wood achieves an intimacy with his subject that’s at once rude and tender… loose, instinctive, and dead-on.” - Vince Alletti, The New Yorker.

“Wood is both an obsessive and a maverick and, though often described reductively as a street photographer, his work does not sit easily in any tradition.” —Sean O’Hagan, The Guardian.

“Among the most thoughtful photographers working today, in any style.” —Richard B Woodward, The Wall Street Journal.

“Photieman displays the heart and soul required to do justice to a city (Liverpool)….Wood’s pictures both celebrate and undermine Scouser archetypes. Catching the pulse of the city at play, they breathe a powerful life and unerring humanity into stock urban clichés.” —Irvine Welsh, Sunday Telegraph Magazine.