Tom Wood is a British community photographer. He was worked on photographing the working class in Liverpool for many years. Originally Wood was trained as a painter at the conceptually orientated Leicester Polytechic from 1973-1976. He first explored lens-based media through extensive viewing of experimental films. Wood’s approach to photography is more fluid than other current conventions of post-Conceptual photography and photojournalism. Wood works will colour negative film and has done so since 1976, using bother black and white and colour in different locations. This is interesting as a lot more photographers are going back to using film cameras instead of digital ones, especially documentary photographers in order to make the more real and raw images possible. Wood is currently working as a part time lecturer in photography at Coleg Llandrillo in north Wales and is 64 years old.

About Tom Wood Interview: http://paper-journal.com/tom-wood/

Men/Women series: https://www.lensculture.com/twood?modal=true&modal_type=project&modal_project_id=5351

I find the Men/Women series very interesting as it is a collaboration of all of Wood’s work and simply separated into two books, one filled with the images of men and the other of women. I find this concept interesting as to why he would separate the two by gender as a way of possibly showing the difference and the divisions within the two genders. I think that this would have been the easiest division for Wood to make as he made his photographs in the UK back when there weren’t many different people in cultures or religions etc. He basically made photographs of British people getting on with their everyday lives. I think that this is a really good way to document different communities and by going round photographing in the same  place a lot of the time he is getting familiar with the people that live around there making them a lot more comfortable with him being around them and making candid and staged photographs with him.

For some reason this image stood out for me and I love the way it looks. The two women are posing for the camera as they sit on the bonnet of their car. The pair are covering in makeup, wearing fake tan and wearing heels and massive earrings. I don’t have a particular reason for liking these images accept for the fact that it interests me and that there is a lot going on in it. The position of the two women is perfect and the facial expression almost suggests that they have a sassy attitude, they seem to enjoy posing for the camera. I like this image as well because of the entire background, the fashion and the way people were back when this photo was taken is completely different to how people are now. I just find that there is a lot going on in this image and spectators will have plenty to look at and interpret for themselves what they think is going on and who the subjects are. I like that this images shows older people in the background sitting on benches just enjoying the view compared to nowadays where so many people are constantly on their phones and laptops that they forget to look outside and just take a moment to relax without having to worry about their electronic devices.

I like the collection of Wood’s work as it is just great documentation of life in Britain from years ago and the community surrounding those people. I like to see this to compare and contrast my own community and how it may differ from these ones and how things have changed and how people are a lot different now. Even though these photos aren’t from too long ago, so much has changed and developed that we have become different beings.

Telegraph article on Wood: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturepicturegalleries/9895436/Tom-Wood-Photographs-1973-2013.html

Another image that I really like is the one above of a group of teenage boys. I find it interesting to see the on trend fashion back when this image was taken and how nowadays people are bringing this back as more of a vintage or retro look. I enjoy seeing these documentary images as it shows the kind of people living in that community and I can relate this to people I see now in my own community. This photo also reminds me a lot of the film Stand By Me with a bunch of boys who look similar to these ones and go on an adventure. The subjects are unconventional in that they are unlikely models but they seem to all look very good in front of the camera in the way that they are conveying the story. They look like a bunch of boys who were just hanging out in their local community when Wood approached them and asked to make a photograph of them. They’re just normal young boys having fun within their community and hanging out together, sharing their experiences. I think that I would like to explore more in depth the different teenage communities within our society and what they actually do in local places instead of seeing the negative things that minorities of teenagers do broadcast on the news and in newspapers. I like Wood’s work and find it very interesting and just great documentation of Britain in the past.