Welcome to my website. My name is Tom Ranahan and I am a photographer living and working in Birmingham. I graduated from North Staffordshire Polytechnic in 1985 with a degree in Fine Art, specialising in sculpture. On completing my degree, I moved back to the West Midlands and continued my practice exhibiting my work locally, nationally and internationally. In 2005 I decided to concentrate on photography and in 2006 was selected for the East International exhibition in Norwich. Since then I have continued to build a body of work that reflects my various interests through the use of photography. Recently I have become interested in producing photobooks based on my travels, both as a personal visual record of my experiences when visiting these places, and as a way for presenting a body of work in an easily accessible format.
The work on my website is predominately landscaped based, whether it is coastal, rural or urban, and feature places that I have a connection to. Birmingham and Ireland are important to me, and will always provide source material. I love light, weather conditions, buildings, water, the urban environment, but I am also interested in people, culture and how they relate to a particular place or environment. In 2013 I did an art residency at the Drake Art Centre in Kokkola, Finland which has given me an interest in seeking out other residencies both in the UK and abroad.
Over the last several years I have been part of an artist’s group called Dialogue. This is made up of 8 core members from Birmingham and Bordeaux, and has resulted in a series of exchange exhibitions and artistic collaborations. I have also been awarded grants from the Arts Council to support my projects and exhibitions.