Tom Pope’s photographic practice embraces performance and transforms the act of creating a photograph into a performative event. The resulting photographs are not documents of the performance events but rather a creative record.

The main subject matter of Pope’s practice is focused on play, in the widest possible sense. His interest in play stems from the lived experience of his working-class roots, from attending a working men’s club where team sports such as cribbage, skittles, snooker, and darts were played.

Play, as performance, is at the core of Pope’s practice; it is both subject matter for his works but also embedded in how he utilises the photographic medium. Pope often re-establishes photographic processes as performative games where people are invited to become players, as a result photographs are created.