Tom Bird is an art director who uses photography as both a personal outlet and a medium to tell stories. Born and raised in the UK, currently based in Amsterdam and working globally.

His photographic approach was refined over a number of years spent documenting the growing skateboarding scene in the Palestinian Occupied Territories. Capturing the fragile freedoms of youth within an area of hostile military occupation helped to sharpen his sensitivity and taught him of the responsibility that comes with holding a camera.

His work has been published by the likes of i-D, Good Sport, STACK, Table Magazine, Essay Skate Mag, and exhibited as part of group shows in The Netherlands, United Kingdom and Czech Republic.

INDEX ︎︎︎

SERIES︎︎︎

1. SAHTEN صحتين
2. EL QUETZAL
3. THE RETURNEE العائدين
4. BEIGE BRITAIN

PUBLICATIONS ︎︎︎

CONTACT︎︎︎

hello@tombirdistheword.com ︎
@tombirdistheword ︎

A’IDUN العائدين
[the returnee]

2016 – ongoing

Following the mass displacement of the Palestinian community that began in 1948 and continues to this day, Palestinian right-to-return is a hot point of discussion at the United Nations. ‘A’idun’ is a title that the Palestinian dispora assigned to themselves, translating from Arabic (العائدين) to describe ‘those who shall return’. As a nod to this contentious issue I adopted a ‘right to return’ principle within my own work; whereby on each successive trip to Palestine I would bring with me prints from the previous visit, intending to ‘return’ them to their rightful owners. Here are a selection of those returned so far...

EXHIBITED AT ISO AMSTERDAM, 2019
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Running on Cargo