Tom Wood’s photographs are known for their matter-of-fact depiction of working-class subjects captured in the streets or on public transportation and shot with warmth and understanding.
‘Looking for Love’
From 1982 to 1985, Wood photographed the comings and goings at the Chelsea Reach nightclub in New Brighton, capturing the drunken and brash interactions of its patrons. The 31 resulting photographs documented the vitality of youthful aspirations, featuring young men and women engaged in promiscuous acts, draped in glam, or succumbed to boredom.
‘Bus Journeys’
From 1978 to 2001, Wood photographed the streets of Liverpool and Merseyside, assembling a portrait of the region through subjects captured on public transportation during off-peak hour commutes, resulting in over 3000 rolls of film that narrate an ‘epic of the everyday’.
Stanley Road - Bootle (1989) shows two children sitting inside a passing bus, who are looking out at the camera while two elderly women engage in conversation behind them. Images such as these have been published in the books All Zones Off Peak (1998) and Bus Odyssey (2001), documenting Liverpool in motion.
‘Men / Women’
In the series ‘Men / Women’, Wood organised photographs from his archives under the headings ‘Men’ and ‘Women’, resulting in a study of gender, character, and place.
Amongst the photographs, Not Miss New Brighton (1978/1979) depicts two girls seated on the hood of a red car spread in seductive poses. Both look into the camera defiantly, offering a sharp contrast to the commonplace associations that tie beauty with submission.
The series was first shown at the Photographers’ Gallery in London in 2012, varying in format, style, and colour—the memorable faces of Wood’s subjects consolidating the images as an anthropology of the everyday.
