About Irish photographer, Tom WOOD (b. 1951 in County Mayo, Western Ireland)
Tom WOOD studied painting (B.A.Hons.) at Leicester Polytechnic from 1973 to 1976. His photographic work is characterized by a direct, candid view of his living environment. His projects, which often span many years, revolve around people's everyday lives, the classic portrait, situations on the street and at home, and in recent years, landscapes. His style can be described as social-documentary, but follows no fixed concept. His pictures arise spontaneously and are unconventionally composed. In the series you can see an honest and humorous attitude of the photographer. He works with a 35 mm camera, but has also used medium and large format cameras for portraits. Until the late 1980s, he mostly photographed on black-and-white negative film, then on color negative film. For a few years he has also been devoting himself more to landscapes, shooting them with a panoramic camera.[3] He presents his photographs, which are listed with title, location and year, in exhibitions and photo books, always combining old and new images from the archive.
Photo books by and with works by Tom WOOD
'Looking for Love' (1989); 'All Zones Off Peak' (1998); 'People' (1999); 'Tom Wood. Catalog volume Galerie im Bürgerhaus Neunkirchen, 2000); 'Bus Odyssey' (2001); 'Bystander. A History of Street Photography' (2001, by Colin Westerbeck and Joel MEYEROWITZ), 'Not Only Female' (2004); 'Photie Man' (2005); 'The Photobook. A History - Volume 2' (2006, by Martin Parr and Gerry Badger); 'F/M. Female/Male' (2011); 'Men and Women' (2013); 'Looking For Love' (2014); 'Mères, Filles, Soeurs' (2018); 'Termini' (2018); 'Women's Market' (2018); '101 Pictures' (2020); 'Facing Britain. British Documentary Photography since the 1960s' (2021, together with works by David HURN, Martin PARR, Tony RAY-JONES, Markéta LUSKACOVÁ, Anna FOX, John MYERS oder Peter MITCHELL);'Irish Work' (2021); 'Snatch out of time' (2022); 'The DPA Work: Photographs of Rainhill Psychiatric Hospital and Cammell Laird shipyard' (2023); 'Landscapes' (planned).
Awards
- 1998: Terence Donovan Award, Royal Photographic Society, Bath, UK.
2002: Prix Dialogue de l'Humanité (Outreach Award), Les Rencontres d'Arles.
Solo exhibitions (a selection)
- 1996: International Center of Photography (ICP), New York; Galerie du Jour, Paris;
1998: Museum of Modern Art, Oxford;
1999: Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne; Gallery of Photography, Dublin;
2000: Thomas Erben Gallery, New York; Kunstverein Ulm
2001: Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum, Aachen;
2002: Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg; Kasseler Kunstverein;
2003: C/O Berlin;
2004: Centre de la Photographie, Geneva;
2005: National Museum of Photography, Copenhagen; Fotografiemuseum FOAM, Amsterdam; Le Château d'Eau, Toulouse; Musée de l'Élysee, Lausanne;
2006: Approach Gallery, London; Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne;
2011: Le Bleu du Ciel Gallery, Lyon; Albrecht Gallery, Berlin;
2012: Sit Down Gallery, Paris; Photographers Gallery, London;
2013: National Media Museum, Bradford
2015: Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris
Group exhibitions (a selection)
- 1994: 'Street Photography', Victoria & Albert Museum, London;
1995: '20 Modern British Photographs,' Victoria & Albert Museum;
1996: 'Blind Spot', Paolo Baldacci Gallery, New York; 'Inside Out', Galerie du Jour, Paris;
1999: International Photo Days, Herten;
2000: 'Les Photographies Collectionnees par agnes b', Centre National de la Photographie, Paris;
2001: 'The Sidewalk Never Ends', Art Institute of Chicago;
2004: 'Rues/Strassen', Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris; 'Really True!', Ruhr Museum, Essen; 'Relating to Photography', Fotografie Forum, Frankfurt; ''Shrinking Cities', Kunst-Werke, Berlin;
2006: '24x36', Landesvertretung Rheinland-Pfalz, Berlin;
2007: 'How We Are: Photographing Britain', Tate Britain, London; 'Liverpool and the Avantgarde, Tate Liverpool;
2008: 'Parrworld', Haus der Kunst, Munich; 'Baby', Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam; 'Baby', Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam;