Between 1978 and 2001, Irish-born photographer Tom Wood, whose family had moved to England, walked the streets of Liverpool with a 35mm Leica. He portrayed the city and its inhabitants, the little people, simple people, with no other goal than to snap them going about their daily business. But he is also one of them—an actor aware of the emancipating role of photography. Nothing predisposed him to take up photography. Fascinated at first by experimental cinema, he discovered the medium on his own. The self-taught Wood remained faithful to chemicals, paper and the darkroom, creating a unique personal tone between distanced analysis and empathy, document and art. His is an instinctive photography that mixes harsh scenes with fondness for his subjects.