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| Splott, Cardiff, 1969 |
I had very little spare time so had to document the subjects that were all around me. This included the area of Cardiff where I grew up and went to school. A traditional working-class area adjacent to the steelworks which was the main employer was undergoing radical and unsympathetic changes. A once-proud community was being broken up and homes demolished.
I was aware of the new wave of British documentary photography that was emerging at the time and the emphasis on the
representation of society and social problems. I was also aware of the increasing recognition of photography within the world of museums and galleries. One of the first, if not the very first exhibition by a living British photographer organised by an arts council took place in Wales. The Welsh Arts Council showed work by Raymond Moore in its little gallery at their offices in Cardiff. I was there at the opening and probably didn't realise the importance of that show at the time.
It seemed to be a turning point, as in the same year the Victoria and Albert museum in London staged a major exhibition of the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson. It was also a turning point for me too, as it was the first time that I had seen the kind of photographic work I was making being celebrated in a major institution in the UK. That it also opened on my birthday seemed to be auspicious! I made a special journey to see the show and returned with the confirmation that I was right to have made photography my life's work and that I needed to concentrate on my own work and projects more. I was impressed that this work was being shown in a respected major institution and it seemed to give work of that kind and photography in general a kind of legitimacy that it had lacked in the UK previously. I also remember thinking how wonderful it was that the museum had acquired some of his prints for their permanent collection alongside all the other artworks. In later years of course this grew into a large, important collection and the V&A now has one of the best in the world.
At the time, not only were there few exhibitions of contemporary photography what magazines existed were either 'trade' publications full of dreary camera adverts and reviews, (some still are), or dreadful amateur stuff also full of nerdy camera technical-speak. One exception was 'Creative Camera' which had morphed from a mainly amateur magazine 'Camera Owner' into 'Creative Camera Owner' and then 'Creative Camera'. A seminal publication for those of us starved of the kind of photography we admired. As a publication it lasted until the late 90's and many of us still miss it. For me, it was a huge part of my photographic world and education.
Years past and I began to achieve some success with various exhibitions and even arts councils and private collectors buying my prints. A letter, (this was pre-internet and e-mail days of course) arrived from the then curator of photographs at the V&A expressing an interest in buying some of my work. I remember my feelings all those years previously when I was on the train home from the Cartier-Bresson exhibition and now I found myself making the same journey home after having some of my work purchased for the very same major public museum. Just like my original experience helped to confirm my chosen path through life, this seemed to me to be another helping hand along that journey.
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| Splott, Cardiff, 1969 |
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| Cartier-Bresson exhibition catalogue, V&A museum, 1969 |
It seemed to be a turning point, as in the same year the Victoria and Albert museum in London staged a major exhibition of the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson. It was also a turning point for me too, as it was the first time that I had seen the kind of photographic work I was making being celebrated in a major institution in the UK. That it also opened on my birthday seemed to be auspicious! I made a special journey to see the show and returned with the confirmation that I was right to have made photography my life's work and that I needed to concentrate on my own work and projects more. I was impressed that this work was being shown in a respected major institution and it seemed to give work of that kind and photography in general a kind of legitimacy that it had lacked in the UK previously. I also remember thinking how wonderful it was that the museum had acquired some of his prints for their permanent collection alongside all the other artworks. In later years of course this grew into a large, important collection and the V&A now has one of the best in the world.
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| 'Creative Camera' magazine, September, 1968. David Hurn was the guest editor. |
At the time, not only were there few exhibitions of contemporary photography what magazines existed were either 'trade' publications full of dreary camera adverts and reviews, (some still are), or dreadful amateur stuff also full of nerdy camera technical-speak. One exception was 'Creative Camera' which had morphed from a mainly amateur magazine 'Camera Owner' into 'Creative Camera Owner' and then 'Creative Camera'. A seminal publication for those of us starved of the kind of photography we admired. As a publication it lasted until the late 90's and many of us still miss it. For me, it was a huge part of my photographic world and education.
Years past and I began to achieve some success with various exhibitions and even arts councils and private collectors buying my prints. A letter, (this was pre-internet and e-mail days of course) arrived from the then curator of photographs at the V&A expressing an interest in buying some of my work. I remember my feelings all those years previously when I was on the train home from the Cartier-Bresson exhibition and now I found myself making the same journey home after having some of my work purchased for the very same major public museum. Just like my original experience helped to confirm my chosen path through life, this seemed to me to be another helping hand along that journey.
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