TOM WOOD

TOM WOOD

MOTHERS, DAUGHTERS, SISTERS

CURATED BY MARTHA KIRSZENBAUM

Before moving to Merseyside in 1978 and becoming the “photie man” photographing people on streets, in pubs and nightclubs, markets and docks, workplaces, parks and football grounds, Tom Wood used to collect old postcards and magazines. The exhibition “Mothers, Daughters, Sisters“ brings together a corpus of prints selected among Tom Wood’s eponymous series, shot on the streets of Liverpool and the surrounding area between the early 1970s and the late 1990s, alongside a selection of found family postcards from his above-mentioned personal collection. The selection of works presented here appears as a rare occasion to put in perspective one aspect of Wood’s prolific and wide-ranging photographic practice with the personal vernacular collection that has impacted his work. “Mothers, Daughters, Sisters“ strikes the viewer with its attention to the mundane and the everyday life of common people. Sometimes posed and sometimes caught on the go, these scenes from street life that Tom Wood captured with his camera impact us by the deep sense of intimacy and feminine complicity they convey.

Exhibition produced in collaboration with Sit Down Gallery.

Publication: Mothers, Daughters, Sisters, Éditions Textuel, 2019.

Prints by Paul Lowe, Spectrum Photographic, Brighton et Tim Williams, Coleg Llandrillo, North Wales.

Framing by Circad, Paris.

Image: Tom Wood, Great Homer Street Market, Liverpool, 1991. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Sit Down.
Tom Wood, Walking Through Shoes, 1991. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Sit Down.
Tom Wood, Burroughs Garden Girls, 1984-86. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Sit Down.
Tom Wood, Putting Green, New Brighton, 1984(Don’t mind my dignity Jan). Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Sit Down.
Photographer

TOM WOOD

Born 1951, County Mayo, Ireland.

Lives and works in North Wales.

Tom Wood studied Fine Art at Leicester Polytechnic before moving to Merseyside in 1978, where he began taking photographs of people on the street. His work has been widely exhibited, notably at The Photographers’ Gallery in London, The International Center of Photography, C/O Berlin, Le Centre Culturel Suisse in Paris, and the Kunsthalle Bremen. He has published numerous books, including Photie Man, Looking For Love, Men & Women, and Women’s Market. He was awarded the Prix Dialogue de l’Humanité at the Rencontres d’Arles (2002) and the Major Production Award from The Arts Council of Wales (2007).
Curator

MARTHA KIRSZENBAUM

Born 1983, Vitry-sur-Seine, France.

Lives and works in Paris, France and Los Angeles, United States.

Martha Kirszenbaum is a curator and writer. She graduated from Sciences-Po (Paris) and Columbia University. Kirszenbaum is the curator of the French Pavilion of the 58th Venice Biennale represented by Laure Prouvost. Previously, she was the director and curator of Fahrenheit in Los Angeles, and has held positions at the MoMA in New York, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the New Museum in New York, the Belvedere Museum, the 21er Haus in Vienna, and the Kunsthalle Mulhouse.

Instagram @martha_kirsz

Image: Martha Kirszenbaum, courtesy of the curator