The last classroom session for AD7801 took place yesterday and we all handed in our ‘artefacts’, on time. Part of the assessment was to reflect on our experience of the projects we had undertaken. This post is largely an edited down version of that. However, what the formal evaluation doesn’t say is how much I […]
Category: Establishing Practice
Final Edit (Part 2)
Two weeks ago, as part of a group critique, I spread out on a table around 100 photocopied 2 x 3 inch prints from my Afon Lwyd project and listened to the class’ responses. There was a range of opinions on offer, mostly positive. This process added a few images to my list of ‘possibles’ […]
Tony Ray-Jones
Although I have been Martin Parr enthusiast for a long time, until recently I hadn’t come across Tony Ray-Jones, who Parr acknowledges as one of his most important influences. In his biography on British Photography Ray-Jones’ work is described as a personalised blend of ‘compassion, curiosity and irony.’ He said of his own work; I […]
Final Edit (Part 1)
Well, this is (nearly) it. I have taken around 800 photos as part of this project and now it is time to try and make sense of them. Technically, they are better than I expected. My most frequent errors have been in low light conditions, usually because of not increasing ISO to allow more flexibility. […]
That is why all veterans cry.
My dad was the son of a war ‘hero’; a brute of a man who won the Military Medal as a private soldier and the Military Cross as an officer, commissioned in the trenches of the First World War. He was a hard act to follow but my dad did follow him into the army, […]
Huw Alden Davies
Huw Alden Davies comes from Tumble, a village in Carmarthenshire that developed in the late 19th century to accommodate the miners at the Great Mountain and Dynant collieries. Mining in the area was in steep decline by the late 1950’s and the area has struggled ever since as the rural economy has also faltered. Davies […]
Blaenavon RFC 16 : 17 Risca RFC
WRU National League – Division 1 East 11th November 2017. I went to watch Blaenavon play this afternoon, ahead of the Wales game. Blaenavon RFC was formed in 1877. Rugby had spread up the valleys from Cardiff, Newport and Swansea in the mid 1800s with the railways that served the coalfields and rugby’s close association […]
Etifeddiaeth
In writing about Afon Lwyd, it is very easy to follow the thoughts of R.S. Thomas or to enter the imagined world Alexander Cordell’s Rape of the Fair Country, which is set in Blaenavon, and to do so would probably lead to another depressing, ‘coal and choirs’/ quirky characters’ photo-essay of a sort that remains […]
Brittle with relics …
This post is the second tracing my journey down the Afon Lwyd (see Down the Valley, posted 23/10 ). This post describes the last mile or so, along the western ridge, down from Varteg to Abersychan. From Talywain, the eastern slopes revert to open country but the disguise is a thin one. What has become […]
Down the valley …
From Blaenavon to ‘The British’ I have been back to Afon Lwyd twice since my last post on this subject; once on a grey, dismal and drizzling day and once in the late autumn sunshine. I have now travelled the length of the valley, mostly on foot, to make sure I had a mental map […]
