'What do artists do all day?' - Tom Wood

Tom Wood's style of photography is mainly street and documentary. He is based mainly in Liverpool and Merseyside. He has returned to Mayo, Ireland where he grew up though out his life

His earlier black and white street photography appeals to me however I have never really liked colour street photography, I feel colour doesn't work for this style of photography. 

He built up a reputation in the area with the locals and the children who used to refer to him as 'photie man'. He explains in this documentary that having a relationship with his subjects or a link to them in some way helped him photography them. I agree with that in some way, as he can tell their story through his photographs and get the subjects image across to the viewer, however being detached from the subject can also be a good thing as you can use the subject to convey any message that you would like regardless of what the subject in the photograph is like. 

A few things he said during the documentary stuck in my mind. One of them was 'the older I got, the more pictures I took, the easier it got' and I think that is a really important statement to make about street photography. Some people don't feel comfortable photographing strangers and just going out with their cameras as they're afraid of what people might say to them or if they'll get strange looks. and as he says, it gets easier the more you do it as it just becomes the norm for you to go out with your camera and you don't notice people looking at you as much. 

Another thing that stood out to me was that he said he 'didn't want to be anybody' which I think is a really interesting comment. He started doing photography because he had a passion for it and because he wanted to create images for himself, no other reason.  Another thing that sort of backs this point up is that he explains how he never completed a project, he'd work on something until he wanted to work on something else, which again shows it is more of a hobby to him, something he enjoys doing rather than doing it to try and make money and make his name heard.