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.

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. "The American Apparel" debuted at the Redline Art Center in Denver in 2018, and "The Nature of the Beast" at the 515 Gallery in Los Angeles in 2021.

Tom lives in Los Angeles.