More from Llechwedd

Slate aggregate for roads and gardens (etc) is made in a relatively small scale at Llechwedd compared to the huge amount of slate waste that could be used for such purposes. With major issues in employment, Blaenau needs jobs. However, both the feasibility of the aggregate scheme and the potential visual changes to Blaenau's 'man-made mountains', which are to many seen as the industrial heritage of North Wales, means this new industry is often viewed with apathy. Father Deiniol, an Orthadox Priest who has lived in the town for 30 years and our kind guide for a day has been campaigning for decades for this secondary industry to be launched on a large scale and thus create broad employment (although major funding would be needed). Others are promoting tourism as the new and primary industry in the area and a multi-milion pound scheme has been launched for relative regeneration with an obvious focus on tourism.

This is not my town and I'm very aware of this. I dont live there and it's not my family generations who made those mountains. Dont forget - every last stone was moved by hand. What is certain is that Blaenau's in a difficult transitional period and it feels like the town understands industry - it's what it's good at. Tourism on the other hand is a difficult and un-walked path for Blaenau.  Here's some pictures of the few men who are crushing slate waste, the landscape they're working in, and a few from around Llechwedd quarry.

Alan

An afternoon spent with Alan while he collected slate for making wine racks in a now closed quarry. We're stood here 3/4 of the way up the largest slate tip in the world.  The building on the far left in the first image was built by Alan and some of the 60 men working below him. He spent the majority of his working life on this man-made mountain splitting slate.

Blaenau Ffestiniog - continued

Re-visit to Blaenau last week on a pretty full on 5-day shoot. The sun was shining all week for once so we made some hay (not literally!). Here's a taster. Again - 5x4 transparencies re-photographed on a lightbox for now...

Llechwedd is the last remaining quarry in Blaenau with men still splitting slate half way up the mountain. First, some images from the top of the mountain where sheds have now been abandoned. speaks volumes of the fragility of the industry.  What an amazing place.

Bever

Photographed by Chris Killip in (I think) 1980 (the year I was born). I knocked on this guys door this year and a young guy opened the door with 'Bobby' tatooed across his throat. Amazing. Here's his father 'Bever' - the original  man of Skinningrove.

North Wales (again)

These are two panoramas takes and stitched on an iPhone in Blaenau Ffestiniog. Again I was shooting on 5x4 but I wanted to show for this purpose the sheer scale of the man-made mountains and the iPhone is so handy! In the first is my friend and colleague who's been assisting me on this project along with Father Deiniol - an Orthadox Minister who has spent decades campaigning within the town for progression within elements of the slate industry to be expanded to secure new employment. Deiniol was our kind (and very alternative) guide to some of the mountains in Blaenau for a days shoot. The second pano is Alan who I've photographed before and again on this trip. He was collecting slate to make into wine racks on the largest slate tip in the world and we managed to get access to take pictures. Work to be added soon from the weeks shoot. Watch this space!

Trawsfynydd Nuclear Power Station

I've been given access to Trawsfynydd nuclear power station as part of my ongoing project in North-Wales.   Trawsfynydd is currently being de-commissioned and is a major employer in the area. Here are a few images from my initial trip.

Alan

This is Alan - an ex-slate quarryman who now has a workshop at his home in Blaenau Ffestiniog. He and his family are friends of a friend but are quickly becoming good friends of mine too I hope. They're really hospitable - some of the best grub in Wales I recon! They have three sons (some of the biggest men I have ever seen). Alan's already taught me how to split slate and fire a shot gun! Heading back to Wales in a week or so so I'm planning to photograph Alan and his family some more if they're happy to let me.

Dead men

Llechwedd slate caverns has been open to the public since 1972 and is a really popular tourist attraction (well worth a visit if you're in the area!). Dummies are staged underground as part of the tours to illustrate the former mining activities. The interesting thing is that although some look like they've come out of Topman recently, others have been there since 1972 and really show the ageing process of being underground. Their faces have cracked and worn with age. Miners rarely worked past 35 years old underground due to the harsh conditions and dust and some of these dummies are a strange visual metaphor of the harsh reality of the lives of those miners. Below are a few examples of what's down there but I think I'm gonnna do something more on this... they were shot with an off-camera flash but I might take some proper lighting down there... I've got a few ideas so watch this space!

Going underground..

A couple of images from underground at LLechwedd underground mine - now open to tourists...

New Project - Blaenau Ffestiniog - North Wales

I met a guy in a pub once (all the best stories start like that!). We'd just opened the gallery and he was interested in what we were doing so at a later date he came round to see the place and the work I was doing on post-industrial Teesside. He recommended a trip to Blaenau Ffestiniog in North Wales.
The story is that he's a market trader and used to sell Welsh slate on his London market as well as directly to London restaurants as wine racks and canapé trays. Each month he would drive to Wales to pick up his slate and over the period of a few years became good friends with his supplier there.
Mark became a good friend of mine and a flying trip last winter to Wales with him made me realise what an amazing place it is. Blaenau Ffestiniog is at the heart of the Snowdonia national park and yet it has been cut out of the park altogether. It was built to house thousands of slate miners and their families when a major seam was discovered in the mid 19th Century. For 170 years slate as been blasted out of the mountains there resulting in uncomprehendable spoil heaps which rival the mountains themselves for dominance over the landscape. These huge spoil heaps as well as the fact that one remaining quarry is still blasting for slate, meant that Blaenau Ffestiniog was excluded from the national park.
Blaenau Ffestiniog once housed the worlds largest slate mine and this industry now clings on at Llechwedd in a fascinating juxtaposition of industrial heritage and tourism. Above ground blasting continues in an open-cast quarry while underground tourists are led round slate cavers carved out by generations of slate miners. The very idea of tourists paying to go underground where miners dreaded going fascinates me. I was gives access to both sites in a recent trip and will be returning soon. This work is mostly shot on 5x4 transparency - shown here on a lightbox.

All below shot in the open cast quarry which has been owned by the Greaves family for 170 years.

 

My excuses - why I haven't been blogging! ;-/

We've been running Profile Gallery in the north-east for two & half years with a highlight of showing a Weegee retrospective last year. Due to being a bit 'back street' we've struggled to make it pay for itself (we run a commercial practice and cafe from the space too). Six months ago we therefore took on two units in the centre of town and set about renovating them so as to move somewhere with more footfall. It's been a bit 24/7 for the the last six months so hopefully things will go back to normal now!!

Here's a couple of images of the brand new Gallery and adjacent 'Sitting Room' which we opened recently.

We're currently showing a body of work called 'Renewables' by Toby Smith, an alumni of LCC. http://www.shootunit.com/

Amy & CJ

This is Amy and CJ. They're in a temporary foster home but will soon have their own house. I'd never met Amy before today when I took this photograph. They're both great. I've done projects on skin-heads before and Amy added me as a friend on Facebook last week- 'friend' of a 'friend' etc. I would never have met Amy otherwise and never taken this photograph. How weird how social networking has transformed our way of engaging with the outside world. ?

And some more...

street photography (welcome to Teesside)

Some images from my street photography assignment - all taken on the golden streets of Redcar & Middlesbrough! The majority of these are shot on a 6x7 rangefinder with a 65mm lens and I often shoot from the hip. I use an external light meter and take several meter readings i.e. one for bright light, one in the shadows, one when the sun goes behind a cloud. These can then be set quickly for each picture depending on the light. I guess the hyperfocal distance almost always as focusing on a rangefinder is a bit time consuming and opportunities for pictures usually happen in a split second. I also find it easier to go out on bright, sunny days so that I can keep my shutter speeds high. I often take pictures in full stride when walking past someone. I keep moving as it's not wise to stay too long in one position in some of these streets with a camera. It's all a bit hit and miss and most of the time the pictures don't work out but it's all good fun and exciting when they do!

The pictures I couldn't take...

Last week I set out in the back of an ice-cream van with Bruce to do the final shoot in the 'people at work' brief. I was hoping it would be the best shoot yet however it didn't quite turn out that way. Partly due to the fact that light was failing by the time we went out but mostly due to the fact that I felt I couldn't take the photographs I wanted to. What I failed to predict (although it seems obvious now) is the fact that 90% of people who run out of their houses to buy an ice-cream are small children who's parents keep an eye on them from the living room window. Great pictures were there but were inaccessible in modern times.
Likewise, as I wandered the streets yesterday for the 'street photography' brief a small child dressed in a full police uniform decided to direct human traffic in the streets - another photograph I felt I couldn't take. I have two small children myself and I start to wonder how I would feel? Are we brainwashed into thinking everyone who takes pictures of children does so for unspeakable reasons? Then I think about Bert Hardy's photographs of children on the streets of Glasgow - I saw some original prints once, amazing, and I think: 'I cant even attempt to make my version of those photos.' Very sad...

Bruce

Bruce owns a fleet of ice-cream vans. I couldn't do a proper shoot when we arranged it due to weather conditions and no one wants to buy ice cream on a rainy January morning! Currently waiting for a sunny day so that he can take the van out. Bruce also happens to be an 'old school' skin head, and I went for a pint with him on the night to an event called 'Crucified for Life'. Bruce has actually had a lot of his tattoos removed primarily on his hands and face. More pictures to come when this grim north-east weather gives us a break!

The mechanic

Richard - Mechanic.

Bill

This is Bill. He's an Artist (MA Graduate) who works mainly with found objects. His house, devoted almost entirely to the work he creates is amazing! Bill creates a self portrait everyday after his breakfast and had an archive spanning over ten years. Hardly anyone ever sees Bills work.