Events

PLATFORM: ZINE LAUNCH EVENT

21 March 2024

Home. Ukrainian Photography, UK Words: Tour

4 March - 28 February 2025

Exhibitions

Home: Ukrainian Photography, UK Words @ New Adelphi

4 March - 8 March 2024

Past Events

CREATIVE SOCIAL: IN THE ABSENCE OF FORMAL GROUND

2 March 2024

Exhibitions

We Feed The UK @ Exterior Walls

8 February - 31 March 2024

Events

Contrail Cirrus: the impact of aviation on climate change

7 March 2024

Exhibitions

Tree Story @ Liverpool ONE

16 February 2024

Open Source #27: Saffron Lily – In The Absence of Formal Ground @ Digital Window Gallery

6 February - 31 March 2024

Past Events

Contemporary Photography from Ukraine: Symposium @University of Salford

4 March - 5 March 2024

Past Events

Is Anybody Listening? Symposium: Commissioning and Collecting Socially Engaged Photography

29 February 2024

Past Events

Different approaches: Artists working with scientists

15 February 2024

Events

LOOK Climate Lab 2024: All Events

18 January 2024

Exhibitions

Diesel & Dust @ Digital Window Gallery

18 January - 31 March 2024

Events

Tree Walks Of Sefton Park with Andrea Ku

21 January 2024

Past Events

Artists Remake the World by Vid Simoniti: Book Launch

31 January 2024

Past Events

Shift Liverpool Open Meeting

6 February 2024

Past Events

We Feed The UK Launch and LOOK Climate Lab 2024 Celebration

8 February 2024

Past Events

Cyanotype workshop with Melanie King

17 February 2024

Past Events

End of Empire: artist talk and discussion

22 February 2024

Past Events

Book Launch: What The Mine Gives, The Mine Takes

24 February 2024

Past Events

Local ecology in the post-industrial era: open discussion

14 March 2024

Events

Plant a seed. Seed sow and in conversation with Plot2Plate

16 March 2024

Events

Waterlands: creative writing workshop

23 March 2024

Events

Erosion: panel discussion

9 March 2024

Events

Waterlands: an evening of poetry and photographs

23 March 2024

Events

Force For Nature Exhibition

27 March - 28 March 2024

Voices of Nature: Interactive Performances

28 March 2024

Past Events

Sum of All Parts: Symposium

27 February 2024

Exhibitions Main Exhibition

LOOK Climate Lab 2024

18 January - 31 March 2024

Past Events

MA Socially engaged photography Open Day event

1 February 2023

Past Events

Tish: Special screening and Q&A

13 December 2023

Past Events

Book Launch: A Look At A New Perspective

23 November 2023

Events

Community workshops @ Ellesmere Port Library

6 November - 5 February 2024

Past Events

Book Launch: ‘544m’ By Kevin Crooks

30 November 2023

Past Exhibitions

Bernice Mulenga @ Open Eye Gallery Atrium Space

17 November - 17 December 2023

Past Events

Bernice Mulenga: Artist Talk

18 November 2023

Past Exhibitions

Local Roots @ The Atkinson

14 October 2023

Exhibitions

Community @ Ellesmere Port Library

26 October - 11 April 2024

Past Events

Critique Surgery for Socially Engaged Photographers

6 November 2023

Past Events

Deeds Not Words: panel discussion

12 October 2023

Past Exhibitions

Deeds Not Words @ Atrium Space

3 October - 22 October 2023

Ode To Our Space @ Digital Window Gallery

29 September - 23 December 2023

A Look At A New Perspective @ Digital Window Gallery

29 September - 23 December 2023

Past Events

Book Launch: Crow Dark Dawn

19 October 2023

Past Events

Exhibition Launch: A Place of Our Own

28 September 2023

Reflections

12 September - 22 December 2023

Past Events

Sandra Suubi ‘Samba Gown’ Procession

9 September 2023

Exhibitions Future Exhibitions

A Place of Our Own

29 September - 22 December 2023

Past Events

POETRY BOOK LAUNCH: JACK BENNETT – LUNETTE

7 September 2023

Exhibitions

A Portrait of the High Street @ Prescot

31 August 2023

Close
Close

The Pier Head – Tom Wood

12 January - 25 March 2018

LAUNCH NIGHT: 11 JANUARY

 

This internationally significant photographer made his name photographing Liverpool and Merseyside. This UK premiere looks at people’s everyday experience of a regional icon – the Mersey River.

The Mersey Ferries operate between Liverpool and the Wirral peninsula. Photographer Tom Wood lived in New Brighton for 25 years, and for most days throughout the 70s and 80s he crossed the river. Whilst waiting for the ferry to arrive or crossing the river, he took photographs.

These images, selected from 1000s of rolls of film, form The Pier Head – Tom Wood. They will be shown just two minutes away from the Pier Head terminal itself. Most of the images are being shown in the UK for the first time.

The Pier Head - Tom Wood

Seacombe Ferry, From ‘The Pier Head’ Series, 1985. © Tom Wood

 

 

A new book, Termini, will launch with the exhibition, featuring a range of images from the show, together with specially written text by poet and writer Paul Farley. Two of Wood’s previous books – Photie Man and Looking for Love, are in included in Source Photographic Review’s list of The Greatest 150 Photo Books of All Time.

The work in The Pier Head – Tom Wood was made at a time when being casually photographed was far less common than now. The 90 plus images on display show commuters, families, friends, the old and the young making the everyday journey across the river, over a kilometre from shore to shore.

Like many cities worldwide, Liverpool has been undergoing a long transition from industrial powerhouse to service city, with many of its functional maritime spaces becoming repurposed. For generations the Mersey Ferry has been and remains a key transport link across the River Mersey, with ferries running continuously between the Pier Head, Liverpool City Centre, and Seacombe and Woodside on the Wirral peninsula. Although many still use the ferry to commute, trains and buses have become the primary means of transport over the river for commuters, with the Mersey Ferry becoming an increasingly popular tourist attraction.

The Pier Head – Tom Wood is accompanied by a project called Ferry Folk, from artist and producer Liz Wewiora. Working with Merseytravel as their artist-in-residence, she has been carrying out a socially engaged photography project on board the Mersey ferry and around the ferry terminals.

The collaborative work she has produced features photographs and anecdotes that tell the stories of the commuters, tourists and staff on board the Mersey Ferry. Various work from this project will be shown in three places: outside Open Eye Gallery, at Museum of Liverpool and digitally showcased on PhotoStories, Open Eye Gallery’s open platform for photographers.

The Pier HeadTom Wood runs from 11 January to 25 March at Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool. A collaboration between Centre d’art GwinZegal, Guingamp and Open Eye Gallery. Curated by Thomas Dukes (Open Eye Gallery) and Jerome Sother (Centre d’art GwinZegal).

All images © Tom Wood. All rights reserved.

In the press:

Financial Times

British Journal of Photography

BBC

Creative Tourist

LAUNCH NIGHT: 11 JANUARY

 

This internationally significant photographer made his name photographing Liverpool and Merseyside. This UK premiere looks at people’s everyday experience of a regional icon – the Mersey River.

The Mersey Ferries operate between Liverpool and the Wirral peninsula. Photographer Tom Wood lived in New Brighton for 25 years, and for most days throughout the 70s and 80s he crossed the river. Whilst waiting for the ferry to arrive or crossing the river, he took photographs.

These images, selected from 1000s of rolls of film, form The Pier Head – Tom Wood. They will be shown just two minutes away from the Pier Head terminal itself. Most of the images are being shown in the UK for the first time.

The Pier Head - Tom Wood

Seacombe Ferry, From ‘The Pier Head’ Series, 1985. © Tom Wood

 

 

A new book, Termini, will launch with the exhibition, featuring a range of images from the show, together with specially written text by poet and writer Paul Farley. Two of Wood’s previous books – Photie Man and Looking for Love, are in included in Source Photographic Review’s list of The Greatest 150 Photo Books of All Time.

The work in The Pier Head – Tom Wood was made at a time when being casually photographed was far less common than now. The 90 plus images on display show commuters, families, friends, the old and the young making the everyday journey across the river, over a kilometre from shore to shore.

Like many cities worldwide, Liverpool has been undergoing a long transition from industrial powerhouse to service city, with many of its functional maritime spaces becoming repurposed. For generations the Mersey Ferry has been and remains a key transport link across the River Mersey, with ferries running continuously between the Pier Head, Liverpool City Centre, and Seacombe and Woodside on the Wirral peninsula. Although many still use the ferry to commute, trains and buses have become the primary means of transport over the river for commuters, with the Mersey Ferry becoming an increasingly popular tourist attraction.

The Pier Head – Tom Wood is accompanied by a project called Ferry Folk, from artist and producer Liz Wewiora. Working with Merseytravel as their artist-in-residence, she has been carrying out a socially engaged photography project on board the Mersey ferry and around the ferry terminals.

The collaborative work she has produced features photographs and anecdotes that tell the stories of the commuters, tourists and staff on board the Mersey Ferry. Various work from this project will be shown in three places: outside Open Eye Gallery, at Museum of Liverpool and digitally showcased on PhotoStories, Open Eye Gallery’s open platform for photographers.

The Pier HeadTom Wood runs from 11 January to 25 March at Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool. A collaboration between Centre d’art GwinZegal, Guingamp and Open Eye Gallery. Curated by Thomas Dukes (Open Eye Gallery) and Jerome Sother (Centre d’art GwinZegal).

All images © Tom Wood. All rights reserved.

In the press:

Financial Times

British Journal of Photography

BBC

Creative Tourist

Get involved:
Volunteering

Find out more
Join our newsletter