Tom Wood

I chose to focus on Tom Wood in my photographer research because he shoots youth culture around Merseyside and liverpool, his shots are about normal everyday life on the streets, in pubs and clubs, markets, workplaces, parks and football grounds.

In this image of a local pub, the shot is of a woman smoking staring at the ground with her head in her hand, everyone else is drinking, she looks miserable. This is an interesting shot as because the photograph is in a party scene, the message conflicts with the context of the image as at a party/ pub people go to get drunk (often young people) and to loose all inhibitions and have fun, whereas the main subject of the piece being the woman looks depressed. I love the bright colours in the image and the composition of the shot as the flash makes the whole image bright and vibrant. Drinking and going out is a massive part of youth culture, this is why this shot is so interesting because she doesn't seem to be enjoying it.

This shot is of a grow go young boys all dressed in tracksuit tops, trainers an jeans, they are sitting down on a bench, the one on the far left is making a gesture or remark with his hands the whole group are laughing or looking at him. Wood photographed this to show the significance of youth cub-cultures, for example this was clearly taken in the 90's as this sort of style was massively in trend, big colourful shell-suit style coats, this was part of the rave or disco scene. Wood also shows the significance of going out with friends anywhere, purely to have fu therefore this image captures the essence of youth. I like the frame and angle of the shot as it is face on and doesn't contain any used space, all the bright colours from their clothes contrasts really well with the blank wall.

In this image of a group of young boys in what looks like a run-down area with a bus and bus top in the background, they are all wearing similar clothing, all are on foot apart from one who is on bike. The main subject of the piece is the two boys at the front, one looks angry with his arms swinging either side of him and the other has his hands in his pockets looking away from the frame of the shot. The image is clever because we automatically look at the entirety of the image because the main subjects are not directly in the centre of the image. The picture is about boyhood and going out with friends and having no inhibitions and just acing fun.

This image represents coming of age and friendship, the two teenage girls are drinking coke standing in front of a wall, the picture is ironically innocent and naive, they both look as though they are friends, their blank expressionless faces are very un-provocative and un-assuming. The picture seems to symbolise everything innocent about youth and the corruption that age will impend. I love the back and white of the image as the colourless feature really adds depth of tone on an already blank shot, their dresses are the lightest part of the image therefore we immediately view the two girls before anything else.