Tom Wood: The DPA Work

Beginning in 1985 the Manchester-based Documentary Photography Archive (DPA) commissioned photographers to record aspects of British society in the north of England. Tom WoodÆs The DPA Work explores the life and demise of two major institutions near Liverpool, Rainhill Psychiatric Hospital and Cammell Laird shipyard. Opened in 1851 as a lunatic asylum for long-term patients, by 1936 Rainhill was the largest hospital complex in Europe. Wood began photographing there in the 1980s when UK government policy had shifted from institutions towards ôCare in the Community.ö By then Rainhill had diminished in size and wards were often combined, mixing a range of patients. The DPA and the mental-health charity Mind, which described conditions at Rainhill as ôwholly unacceptable,ö asked Wood to record the hospitalÆs closure and the movement of its patients into the community. Cammell Laird shipyardÆs illustrious history dates back to the 1820s, and includes the building of many famous warships and aircraft carriers such