Thomas Alleman was born and raised in Detroit and graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in English Literature. From that point onward he dedicated his attentions to photography. During a fifteen-year newspaper career, Tom was a frequent winner of distinctions from the National Press Photographer’s Association, as well as being named California Newspaper Photographer of the Year in 1995 and Los Angeles Newspaper Photographer of the Year in 1996. As a magazine freelancer, Tom’s pictures have been published regularly in Time, People, Business Week, Barrons, Smithsonian, and National Geographic Traveler.

Tom exhibited Social Studies, a series of street photographs, widely in Southern California. Sunshine & Noir, a book-length collection of black-and-white urban landscapes made in the neighborhoods of Los Angeles, had its solo debut at the Afterimage Gallery in Dallas in 2006. Subsequent solo exhibitions opened around the world, and most recently The Nature of the Beast debuted at the 515 Gallery in Los Angeles in 2021.