Offering a fascinating snapshot of Liverpool life during the 80s and 90s, Tom Wood spent 25 years capturing characters on the streets of Merseyside.
Born in Ireland, Tom, now 72, moved to Merseyside in 1978 and lived here until 2003. It was during this time he earned the nickname "Photie Man", as he spent his time photographing people and places not usually represented in art at a time of great social and political change.
From trips to Greatie market to matchdays at Anfield and Goodison Park to New Brighton's Chelsea Reach nightclub and Birkenhead's Cammell Laird shipyard, Tom's photos are set to feature in a new exhibition. "Photie Man: 50 Years of Tom Wood" at the Walker Art Gallery will celebrate over half a century of his work.
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Tom has had major retrospectives around the world – in China, France, London – but never in Liverpool, where he photographed every day for 25 years, wants to give the work back to the city "where it belongs." Tom told the ECHO: "When I was still at school I used to get off the bus at a charity shop and it was always full of old photos, family albums and postcards in particular and I started to collect them.
"I used to collect photos of soldiers and churches, obscure landscapes, they had a section for mother and daughters, weddings – I put them all in categories. I was really interested in photography, but I'd never take any pictures at that point.
"I did a lot of things when I left school, I didn't know what I wanted to do. I was always good at drawing and I ended up at art school painting. They would give you a camera to record your paintings and make notes and things like that when you're out and about that and that very quickly took over – I just really liked pictures."
Whilst working at a Butlins holiday camp doing "happy snaps," Tom met a waitress who would later become his wife. After seeing a job advertised at Liverpool Polytechnic in the art school, in 1978 they moved to Liverpool, where Tom worked as a photographic technician.
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Tom said: "I didn't drive so I used to photograph from the bus going to work or wherever I was going to explore Merseyside. In those days, nobody had phones so there was a lot more eye contact and you’d chat to people.
"In the beginning I used to take pictures of people because they wanted me to, because they didn't have cameras. I spent my life putting them in envelopes with the name and address and please do not bend.
"You see that person years later and they were made up you went to all that trouble and it makes it easier to photograph. A lot of people from Scotland Road would hang around the Pier Head and you'd get to know them and five years later they'd say 'hi Tom, I'm getting married would you do the pictures.'
"I'd do wedding pictures for free and just for the cost of the film. That's the way I worked, being up close to people, photographing people and explained what I was doing. I would go to the same place week after week, month after month, year after year and you become part of the scenery, hence the name the Photie Man.'
Tom said he would often have photographs in his bag and when he returned to places like the Pier Head or football grounds, he would hand them out to people. The nickname 'Photie Man' came from a member of the public, inspiring the title of one of Tom's books.
Tom said: "There was a guy who I had photographed when he was younger, I hadn't seen him for a few years. I was getting off and he was getting on.
"He'd had a couple of drinks and was with a London friend and said 'Photie Man how are you doing, you're not living in New Brighton now?'. I said yeah but the train is cancelled. He said 'where's your camera?' and I had it in my pocket and I just lifted it to my eye and he slapped me on the shoulder and said to his mate 'Photie Man'.
"I told that story to Padraig Timoney who does a lot of my layouts and did the cover of my book. He had the idea to call the book Photie Man."
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Over 25 years, Tom photographed the region every day, as well as at one point doing photography for The Liverpool Playhouse and shooting video as artist in residency at Coopers pub. A few years ago, Tom visited a Rennie Mackintosh exhibition and thought he'd love to do something like that, but "never dreamed" it would happen.
Tom said: "To have a show at the Walker Art gallery of all these pictures where I made them – I'm just really pleased to do it. What I'd love to do out of this show is connect with some of those people.
"If it's a good picture of them and I could do another one of them now, wouldn’t that be great? That's something I'd love to get out the show, to meet those people again.
"It's just great to do the show and I hope the people like the pictures. I couldn't have made this work anywhere else, I'm honestly not just saying that. It’s just something about the place and connecting with the people and the way they are."
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Tom's photos are set to feature in a new exhibition called "Photie Man: 50 Years of Tom Wood" at the Walker Art Gallery, celebrating over half a century of his work. The exhibition opens on May 20, with highlights including photos taken at the now demolished Chelsea Reach nightclub in New Brighton in the 80s.
Iconic photos from Tom's most well-known series ‘All Zones Off Peak’, which were shot as he travelled on buses across the city during off peak hours, will also feature in the exhibition. These will appear alongside rarely shown works from Birkenhead's Cammell Laird shipyard and around Liverpool’s two football grounds. Shots from Tom's ‘Irish Work’, made since the 1970s, will also feature in the exhibition, together with recent landscape photography made around his current home in North Wales.
Charlotte Keenan, Head of Walker Art Gallery, said: "Through his photography in Liverpool and Merseyside, Tom Wood offers visitors from the local area the opportunity to revisit many recognisable people and places from our history. I’m thrilled to be hosting this exhibition at the Walker, which will be a celebration of Tom Wood’s career – offering followers and newcomers alike the opportunity to take a more in-depth look at his work.”
Tickets for Photie Man: 50 Years of Tom Wood are on sale now. Adult tickets cost £9, with concessions available – members of National Museums Liverpool can visit for free. On the first Sunday of every month, Liverpool City Region residents can visit the exhibition at the discounted rate of £4.50 for adults and concessions.
For further details, click here.
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