‘I’m not interested in leather at all!’: John Wood talks about his own photography of Glasgow’s gay venues, and comparisons with Robert Mapplethorpe | Photography

WWhat is the story behind John Wood’s photographs? Some may guess that his photographs, which depict male subjects in various states of undress, often wearing black leather jackets, gloves and boots, were taken in New York in the era of BDSM photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and Studio 54. Or perhaps they were created in very A different kind of darkroom – the kind of space that inspired the proverbial images of artist Tom of Finland? If I gave you a hundred tries, you’d probably never guess that these provocative, intimate and bizarre photographs were taken in a converted attic in the West End of Glasgow, unknown to the world (and neighbours) for decades.

Wood’s own story is equally unusual. At the age of 79, he has his first ever solo exhibition at the Celine Gallery in Glasgow. To say it took a long time would be an understatement: Wood has been taking photographs since his teens, when he began teaching himself by studying images in magazines. The images in the exhibition span 20 years, from “Cal,” a small Polaroid of a man standing naked next to a white doorway, taken in 1982, to “June 2002,” a gelatin silver print of an unnamed man wearing a leather waistcoat, with a black military-style leather hat and cigarette obscuring most of his face.

When we talk, Wood is much more humble about his photographs. He describes them as “collaborative images,” often noting that he was happy to follow his subjects. “I think they were probably restricted by their very tight leather clothing, so they couldn’t move much,” he says. “So my input regarding posing was very minimal. It was mostly about lighting and the look of the image itself.” This collective approach is why he frequently prints his works in duplicate, keeping one set and giving the other to his sitter.

Visually, the similarities to Mapplethorpe are obvious. Both photographers capture a sense of masculine peacocking that is integral to the gay leather scene, where black clothing is part of the act of drag fueled by masculinity. While taking photos, Wood was amazed at how “confident they all looked” in leather. “They have all these amazing clothes that they never get a chance to wear, except maybe to go to a certain leather bar on the weekend,” he says. “So I think it gave them room to show off.” Given the context in which the photographs were taken – male homosexuality was only decriminalized in Scotland (for those over the age of 21) in 1981, the same year the first cases of AIDS were diagnosed in the UK – it is easy to understand how much freedom these men must have when given a space in which to be confident, strong and sensitive.

One major difference from Mapplethorpe is that, unlike the American photographer, Wood was not part of the leather subculture that many of his photographs document. “It’s funny because I don’t like leather at all. It’s not my scene,” he says, explaining that he was introduced to the Glasgow leather scene through a former partner. Most of the topics are related to this partner in one way or another. “He lived a gay life before me, and he kept up with these people who were all part of this leather crowd,” Wood says. “They kept pestering me to photograph them, so I thought: why not?”

While many of the people Wood photographs appear nude and wearing provocative clothing, his images do not appear pornographic or shocking. “There was nothing sexual about the actual photo shoot – you know, there was no orgy at the end of the session!” He’s joking. “There are pictures of naked men in different positions that are probably very sexy, but there are no erections or anything like that.” There is a deep sense of intimacy and playfulness about them. Roberto and Andrew depict a couple embracing while one tickles the other’s nipples, while Stephen (1996/2026), the most striking image in the show, depicts a man in a leather jacket and boxer briefs bending over to tie his shoelaces, offering a view of his backside in a position that appears both vulnerable and powerful at the same time.

These images exploring masculinity, sexuality and power were a far cry from Wood’s everyday working life in Glasgow. In the 1970s he worked in the audio department at BBC Scotland before spending the rest of his career as an engineer at British Telecom. Over the years, he has taken on freelance commercial photography jobs, but has never shown his work in a gallery, until now.

Scottish artist and scholar Stephen Grainger was the catalyst for his first solo show, which was presented to Wood as part of his research into gay artists in Glasgow in the 1980s and 1990s. When Grainger was first invited to Wood’s apartment in January 2026, he wasn’t sure what to expect. “I thought I’d look at vacation photos, like photo albums or something,” he recalls. “But then John pulled out an archive box and started showing me his photographs. I soon realized there were about 20 archive boxes.”

The duo meets regularly to chat. “We became great friends,” Wood says, describing how Grainger got him thinking about returning to photography for the first time in years. When the Celine Gallery opened – an artist-run venue in Glasgow’s south side – Grainger seized the opportunity to curate an exhibition of Wood’s work, distilling hundreds of images into a final collage of nine.

It is important to think about the context in which the photos were taken. In the 2000s, when Grainger recently came out, gay men began to occupy more space in mainstream culture. But even as acceptance became more widespread, gay characters in TV shows and movies were often desexualized. As Wood says: “They didn’t mind that you were gay, but they didn’t want to know anything about it.” Now, with the gay hockey show “hot rivalry” stealing the zeitgeist, and Alexander Skarsgård donning leather biker gear in the “rom-com” subgenre “Pelion,” mainstream culture is becoming less sensitive about the depiction of gay sex.

For Grainger, who grew up in the Section 28 era, his collaboration with Wood was an education. “If I had known about John when I started studying art, I think my life would have been very different,” he says. Not only did he discover the work of a gay artist who would otherwise have been completely unknown to him, he also learned that, even in the midst of the AIDS crisis, there were gay men in Glasgow living full, interesting and sexual lives. Wood may be modest about his role in creating these images, but he was the one who saw the beauty in it and decided to capture it for posterity.