South Wales and the Valleys · 1987-8
Newport, South Wales
The first year of the School of Documentary Photography was photo boot camp. Just about every day, I and my peers had to go out and take pictures. It was a matter of course that your first efforts were rejected at a critique with one of the tutors. You’d have to go out and do it again! Of course, this was a pain but it was a great way to push yourself (or rather have others push you to push yourself) and a great way to learn to have greater humility. To go back to where you had been the previous day and ask to repeat the process because what you did before was not good enough is a humbling experience and a great character builder. One also learns that, generally, people are kind, particularly when one has shown them a vulnerability. More often than not, returning to repeat the exercise did produce better results and also nutured a closer relationship with the people one photographed.
However, when pictures shone, they were accepted and received the ver-sought-after chinagraphed rectangle drawn around the frame on a contact sheet.
I loved the technique of the Newport School of Photography and have implemented it in more nuaced forms when I have taught photography classes in communities. (Examples of a couple of these workshops from Colombia can be seen at: Comuna 13 and Comuna 4 – Somos Historia – I have also worked on photo projects with communities in Guatemala and London, England, but these I don’t have access to, as they were done before digital scanners were commonplace).
On this page, I showcase a few images from the first year at Newport – a fraction of the thousands of photographs that I took.
The first year coursework was divided into several units progress list of units was i. person at work (essentially, catching that moment); ii. relationships (between folks and also things); iii. establishing photographs (those that introduce a theme, place or concept etc.); iv.portraits; v. group portraits; vi. three picture stories; vii. five picture stories. We began using a camera with a 50mm lens (or similar) and black and white film and, as time moved on, could use other lenses and them began to photograph in colour transparency and use artificial lighting.
The second year was dedicated to four large picture stories (with minimum of two in colour transparency) of which I only have one scanned and available for viewing – see Platoon
Llanwern Steel Works
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Newport is to the south of the South Wales Valleys, which was coal country but very much in decline. Often, one would return to the same people and places duiring the progress of the year.
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“Tiger Bay,” Cardiff City’s Butetown
The port area of Cardiff that was somewhat run down, a focus of poverty and with encroaching gentrification on its fringes towards the city centre. There were many immigrants living in the area, many of whom had arrived as seamen or were descents of those who had arrived as such in previous generations.
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Newport Docks and the dock workshops.
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A horseshow in Caerphilly, South Wales. I have always enjoyed photographing at events, as one can circulate with a certain degree of detachment, observe, catch moments and tune into one’s own visual perceptive resonance.
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Light Notes · Short Tales 