John Wood, a 79-year-old former telecoms engineer, is exhibiting his first solo show at Celine gallery in Glasgow, featuring intimate portraits of men from the city's gay leather subculture taken between 1982 and 2002. The images, captured in a converted attic in Glasgow's West End, remained hidden for decades.
From telecoms to photography
Wood taught himself photography as a teenager by studying magazines. By day he worked at BBC Scotland and later British Telecom, but by night he documented a hidden world. His subjects, often clad in black leather jackets, gloves, and boots, were part of a scene introduced to him by a former partner. “They kept nagging me to photograph them, so I thought: ‘Why not?’” Wood says.
The exhibition spans 20 years, from 'Cal' (1982), a Polaroid of a nude man by a white doorway, to 'June 2002', a gelatin silver print of a man in a leather waistcoat and military-style cap. Wood describes the process as collaborative: “My input regarding the posing was pretty minimal. It was mostly the lighting and the look of the photograph itself.” He often printed duplicates, keeping one set for himself and giving the other to the sitter.
Comparisons to Mapplethorpe
Visually, Wood's work recalls Robert Mapplethorpe's BDSM photography. Both capture the masculine peacocking of the leather scene. However, Wood was not part of the subculture. “I’m not into leather at all. It’s just not my scene,” he says. He notes the confidence of his subjects: “They’ve got all these fantastic clothes that they never get a chance to wear, except maybe going to a particular leather bar at the odd weekend.”
The context is significant: male homosexuality was decriminalised in Scotland for over-21s only in 1981, the same year the first UK AIDS cases were diagnosed. Wood's portraits offered a freeing space for men to be confident and sensual. “There was nothing sexual about taking the actual photographs – you know, there was no orgy at the end of the session!” he jokes. “There are images of naked guys in various poses that are maybe quite erotic, but there are no erections or anything like that.”
Discovery and exhibition
The show was curated by artist and researcher Steven Grainger, who met Wood in January 2026 expecting to see holiday pictures. Instead, Wood revealed about 20 archive boxes of photographs. “I soon realised that there were about 20 archive boxes,” Grainger recalls. The duo became friends, and Grainger seized the chance to exhibit the work, distilling hundreds of images into nine final pieces.
Grainger, who grew up during Section 28, says the collaboration has been educational. “Had I known about John when I started art school, I think my life would have been quite different.” He learned that even during the AIDS crisis, gay men in Glasgow lived full, sexual lives. Wood remains modest: “They didn’t mind you being gay, but they didn’t want to know anything about it.”
John Wood is at Celine, Glasgow, on Saturdays until 2 August.
