Interview: Tom Wood - Telegraph "Doing something about it" is as about as specific a brief as Wood allowed himself. "The important thing is not to have an aim," he says. I just go out the door and, whatever's real, I try and deal with that. The results are three beguiling but very different sets of images, and memories of three very different experiences for their creator. Back from Pontoon, (Cavecalf), 1975. Courtesy Tom Wood Merseyside gave Wood his only urban landscape. Gritty and grey, the images are spiked with decaying buildings, litter-strewn scrubland and deserted piers. "It looks tough and rough, because that's how it was in the Seventies and Eighties," says Wood. He started photographing the landscape in amongst his portrait work and Merseyside's inhabitants often creep into shot. I'd be on the bus trying to photograph faces, but then I started using wider-angle lenses to get more of the surroundings in. If nothing was happening downstairs I'd go upstairs and photograph of the window. Then what are you looking at? An urban landscape; a social landscape. Mersey Family Vauxhall, 2002. In contrast, his photographs of North Wales are largely devoid of people. They're also an unapologetic celebration of natural beauty. But despite having moved to the area for its "real landscape," Wood initially found the rolling vales and glorious woodland a challenge. I didn't know if I could take pictures around here because it was just too nice. How do you make it interesting?" he says. But a panoramic camera with a slowly rotating lens that captured every detail, changed things. I took a photo of a hazel hedge - there was beautiful light, it was misty - and when I saw the print I realised how beautiful the browns and greens were. Those tiny details were the reason for the picture. Achill Red (between Dugourt and Keel), 1990. Wood went on to photograph his local area every day for 10 years, trundling around on his bike, packed lunch on his back. He insists it was never a struggle to find inspiration. [Henri] Matisse said inspiration is being at the easel at nine in the morning. My only problem was getting out the door. Once you do it's easy because the world is there. But it is Wood's photographs of County Mayo that seem to most excite him. Alongside explore the area's history - "the West of Ireland is wild and mysterious but also sad and empty because so many people emigrated" - they explore Wood's own ancestry, where land owned by his family provides the backdrop to images of his gently aging relatives. The Windy Gap, 2001. Wood also includes photos taken by friends, family and neighbours in the exhibition, which he has been collecting since childhood and which he feels give the autobiographical element substance. "They fitted in and were saying things I couldn't say," he explains. In addition, he has added a collaborative element in which members of the public can dig their own photographs out of albums, boxes and tins and add them to the show. "Part of what makes a landscape is those people," he explains. It seems you can cast Tom Wood into the Welsh wilderness for 10 years, but the people-loving photographer will always find his way back to civilisation. Tom Wood - Landscapes is at Mostyn, Llandudno until 6th April 2014. The exhibition will be accompanied by a three volume catalogue, published by Steidl. Tom will also feature in the BBC4 documentary series, What Do Artists Do All Day? later this spring.