Thomas Alleman was born and raised in Detroit, where his father was a traveling salesman and his mother was a ceramic artist. He graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in English Literature.

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.

As a magazine freelancer, Tom’s pictures have been published regularly in Time, People, Business Week, Barron's, Smithsonian and National Geographic Traveler.

Tom exhibited “Social Studies”, a series of street photographs, widely in Southern California. “Sunshine Noir”, had solo exhibits at the Afterimage Gallery in Dallas in 2006,. the Robin Rice Gallery in New York in 2008 and 2013, the Blue Sky Gallery in Portland, OR in 2009 and 2015, and the Duncan Miller Gallery in Los Angeles.

Tom lives in Los Angeles.