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Tom Atwood's recent work has focused on portraits of people at home. He has shot over 100 luminaries including Hilary Swank, Julie Newmar, Buzz Aldrin, Mark Wahlberg (Marky Mark), John Waters, Don Lemon, Tommy Tune, Meredith Baxter, Greg Louganis, Barney Frank, George Takei, Edward Albee, Ross Bleckner, Michael Cunningham, Alison Bechdel, Ari Shapiro, Don Bachardy, Charles Busch, Alan Cumming and Leslie Jordan.
His second book, Kings & Queens in Their Castles, was published by Damiani. The book won multiple awards including First Place in the International Photography Awards as well as a Lucie Award.
Atwood was included in the National Portrait Gallery’s Outwin Boochever Triennial (Smithsonian). He won first place in Portraiture in the Prix de la Photographie Paris and Gold and Silver Medals at the Vienna International Photo Awards. Atwood also won Photographer of the Year from London's Worldwide Photography Gala Awards, as well as first place in Portraiture.
He has won over 65 additional awards including from the Griffin Museum of Photography, Center for Fine Art Photography, International Photography Awards, Arnold Newman Prize, Santa Fe Center for Photography, Aesthetica Art Prize, Photoville, Camera Club of NY, CameraArts, PDN, The Photo Review, Jacob Riis Award, Hellerau Photography Award, London Photo Show, Passepartout Prize, American Photography Annual, American Art Awards, Arte Laguna Prize, Premio Combat Prize, Luxembourg Art Prize, Photography Masters Cup, Gomma, Manhattan Arts International, Moscow International Foto Awards, Kodak and American Photographic Artists. He was also recognized as a Photolucida Top 50 Photographer and a Photo Life Magazine Top 50 Emerging Photographer.
Atwood's work has exhibited over 85 times in 20 countries including at the National Portrait Gallery (Smithsonian), Royal Photographic Society (UK), Griffin Museum of Photography, George Eastman Museum, National Museum of Finland, D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts, Kemper Art Museum, LACMA Library, MoMA, Center for Fine Art Photography, Museum of Photographic Arts, Yorkshire Museum (UK), MoCA (Italy), Masur Museum of Art, Center for Photography at Woodstock, Benaki Museum (Greece), Annenberg Space for Photography, House of Lucie, Frank Museum, Fattori Museum (Italy), Fotografie Forum Frankfurt (Germany), Museum of Science and Technology (Germany), Mediterranean House of Photography (Spain), Shibuya Cultural Center (Japan), Colby College Museum of Art, Círculo de Bellas Artes Museum (Spain) and LA Center for Digital Art.
Galleries that have exhibited his work include ClampArt (NYC), Steven Kasher Gallery (NYC), Foley Gallery (NYC), Louis Stern Fine Arts (LA), Farmani Gallery (LA), PDNB Gallery (Dallas), Photo-Eye Gallery (Santa Fe), Jules Maeght Gallery (San Francisco), BBA Gallery (Germany), Saatchi Art, Boomer Gallery (UK), Dama Gallery (LA), Galerie Huit Arles (France) and Proyecto Galeria (Mexico). He’s exhibited at Paris Photo, AIPAD, Photo LA, Armory Show, Art Basel Miami, Frieze, SCOPE, Art Los Angeles Contemporary, Photoville, Barcelona Foto Biennale, Yixian International Photo Festival (China), Helsinki Photo Festival and Athens Photo Festival.
His work has been featured in over 200 publications in over 15 countries including The Guardian, New York Times, New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Denver Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Magazine, New York Magazine, Elle, Harvard Magazine, Art Newspaper, Artforum, Art Ltd., Artillery, Photo Life, Photo Selection, The Photo Review, Popular Photography, PDN, Rangefinder, LenScratch, Aesthetica, Feature Shoot, Photographer's Forum, Huffington Post and VICE. His work has been included in books by Rizzoli, Taschen, Routledge and Alyson Books. Atwood has also appeared on Sirius, CBS, ABC, Bravo, Telemundo and other networks.
Atwood has a Bachelor’s from Harvard University and a Master’s from Cambridge University (UK). He’s lectured on photography at various universities including UCLA, UCSB and the School of Visual Arts, has been a juror for London's Worldwide Photography Gala Awards and was a portfolio reviewer for Popular Photography and American Photo.
His photography clients have included The Wall Street Journal, Brandweek, Angeleno, LA Confidential, BMW, L'Oreal, Disney, Lexus, Verizon, Johnson & Johnson, Nestle, Deloitte and CAA. In a past career, he was a Vice President at two tech companies, a Vice President at the advertising agency McCann Worldgroup and a Director at global advertising agencies DDB and BBDO.
Based in New York, Atwood has lived in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Amsterdam and Paris. He grew up on a dirt road in Vermont.