Self Adjustment

Over at Dylan Thomas Centre today considering Dylan’s words “We are not wholly bad or good…”

Who we are changes as we grow. There’s the person we are, the person we were, and the person we are yet to be. There’s the side we show to family and friends, and the side we let loose in public. Somewhere at the heart of it all is a life story that our self would choose to tell.

How we choose to portray ourselves in a photograph is a valuable way of sharing this story. For participants from the Traumatic Brain Injury Service it’s an empowering way of opening up dialogue about their journey through life so far. These self-portraits are far beyond the vernacular idea of a ‘selfie’ and are careful considerations on the concept of identity.

Every picture tells a thousand words.

Gill

Louise

Sharon

Zoe

Jayne

Emma

Growth and Optimism

After a traumatic event it’s not easy to be optimistic. Today’s group at the Dylan Thomas Centre were encouraged to examine their own personal growth and also look for potential in their surroundings. A sunny spring day is the perfect setting for optimism and growth but even without the sunshine there’s plenty of meaning that can be drawn from any surrounding. Here we looked at doorways and contrasts between old and new architecture as metaphors for how we were feeling.

This project is a ten week course run for the Traumatic Brain Injury Srvice and held at the Dylan Thomas Centre. Its primary focus is on using photography in a therapeutic way to examine personal growth, positivity, and to develop self-esteem. Already the results and the philosophy behind participants’ photographs are showing the potential of what they are capable of. It will be really exciting to see what this class produce as the technical and personal skills of this class advance over the coming weeks. More results next Wednesday!

Teresa

Laura

Cath

Gill

Teresa

Sharon

Sharon

Emma

Gill

Emma

Laura

Delyth

Lee

Delyth

Cath

Anne

Anne

Bringing Gower Home for the Last Time

Finally, after eight long months, the last group from Bringing Gower Home completed their workshop at Gower Heritage Centre at Parkmill, Gower. In total, ten groups from across the Swansea Bay Region have been experiencing the history, people, coast, nature, and landscape of this amazing peninsula and showing what they found through a series of photographs. All the participating organisations have contained groups of people who would not normally be able to access the Gower. All have been telling their stories and learning new skills through photography.

The images themselves are a far cry from your normal tourist photographer’s fare. We’ve turned our back on panoramic vistas and photoshopped sunsets to show the real experience of what to expect from Gower. We’ve seen chickens and machinery, heritage and tattoos. Gower isn’t just a picture postcard, it’s a living, breathing 21st century world to be enjoyed and experienced by all.

Today’s final group were all affiliated with the Traumatic Brain Injury Service. Bringing Gower Home has encouraged participants from this service to see what’s on Swansea’s doorstep and challenge participants to see their world differently. At a separate event in the Summer this group will revisit their photographs as a projected display at a venue convenient to the participating organisation. Here, each participant will be encouraged to share their feelings about the experience and discuss their photographs with an invited audience. The whole project experience is focused upon developing participants’ life skills, particularly self-esteem.

Today we were joined by the communications officer from the City and County of Swansea and a reporter from South Wales Evening Post. Both will be running features soon on the Bringing Gower Home project and how photography workshops such at these are making a difference to the lives of people across the Swansea Bay region. We’ve had more than 100 people participating in this unique project and with any luck it will be a project we’ll be repeating soon.

Thanks to Gower Landscape Project (GLP) which is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, Natural Resources Wales, City and County of Swansea, and National Trust for making Bringing Gower Home possible. Here’s a quick look at the results from this final Bringing Gower Home group. Enjoy!

Anne

Gill

Yvonne

Kamilla

David

Andrew

Jonny

Ian

Catherine

Cath

Helen B

Helen H

I am organising, delivering, and supporting this project in collaboration with Gower Landscape Partnership (GLP) which is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, Natural Resources Wales, City and County of Swansea, and National Trust.

A Dylan Thomas Inspirational Workshop

We’ve just started a workshop today with the Traumatic Brain Injury Service based at Morriston Hospital. It’s a really exciting workshop to be delivering because it combines all sorts of disciplines into one massive positive experience.

The workshop itself is being held at the Dylan Thomas Centre here in Swansea. The facilities here are awesome and there is so much to learn from the staff and the location at the centre. There is an exhibition space here which shares everything inspirational about Dylan Thomas himself and I’m certain we’ll be using this space in the best way possible.

Then comes the photography element of the course. The group are exploring their surroundings and recording their feelings using photography. It means if they see something inspirational they can create something special immediately to voice what they’re seeing and thinking. It’s a new technical skill too which will be stretching the group to develop their learning beyond their current level.

Finally, and most importantly, this workshop is designed to follow the core therapeutic values that the staff at Morriston Hospital are already employing to develop participants’ own well being. We’re confident that the activities on this course will improve upon the strengths that participants already possess and improve their  own range of positive thinking. Support Staff from Traumatic Brain Injury Service have designed assessment methods which we’re following closely so that improvements in participants well-being can be measured in the best possible way.

It’s exciting for me to be involved in this project because it’s showing that the way I teach photography has a valid and proven therapeutic value for people who aim to improve the way they see the world. I’m not entirely sure what today’s participants expected from a photography course, but I can guarantee they’ve already delved deeper and further into analysis through their own photographs than they ever thought possible within just a few hours of picking up the camera for the first time.

Here are today’s best images. More next week!

Anne

Anne

Ben

Cathy

Cathy

Delyth

Delyth

Emma

Emma

Emma

Emma

Gill

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Hannah and Zoe

Helen

Helen

Gill

Lee

Lee

Louise

Louise

Sharon

Teresa

Collage Your Memories

Next Saturday I’ll be in the Workers Gallery at Ynyshir running some collage masterclasses in the morning and afternoon. It’s exciting because I haven’t done one of these for a while. I’ve found myself looking back through my archive of photographs seeing what would be great for people to cut up.

The best results are always gained when people work with their own photographs rather than mine. It’s a way for people to reconnect with a memory and rework it into something different. This emotional connection is important to me and is the reason why I very rarely work with anonymous pictures from magazines or books. I need to feel that I am engaging with the picture at a deeper level.

I’m not sure yet how many people I’ll be working with next weekend and as far as I know there are still places available if you want to join in the fun. It’s only £12 per 2 hour workshop and booking is essential. Contact the gallery in Ynyshir directly if you want to participate. You can get hold of them via facebook, email wood4tt@gmail.com, phone 01443 682024 or pop into the gallery on Ynyshir Road.

This will be fun!

Play

After a couple of days with just glue and paper it’s refreshing to get out and about in the spring sunshine. Wandering is a wonderful way to refresh the body and the mind. It doesn’t matter where you live there is always somewhere to wander to.

Here we’re have old quarries clinging to the side of a steep hill. Housing below and above hasn’t yet encroached on this space and due to the geography is unlikely to. Instead there’s a large area of green space with as many birds, bees, bats, and foxes as disused fridges and old tyres.

Even plain old boring grass holds enough to keep my brain interested. Everything is here to enjoy in exactly the right quantities if you look at life in the right way.

Spyglass

During my photography workshops I always encourage my participants to consider their world differently and to exercise patience in getting what they want. This ethos is something I continue with in my personal practice far beyond the workshop environment. I find that by looking at my own space differently I am calmer and more able to focus on the things that matter rather than the extraneous clutter of day to day life.

I’ve been watching the spyglass in my door for a while now waiting for the right set of conditions to get the right photograph. It’s been a long time coming. I discovered Winter doesn’t work because too much moisture builds up behind the glass. The sun was at the wrong angle in Autumn, and yet Summer was no good because all water droplets had evaporated completely. So I’ve been waiting for early afternoon light on a cool Spring day to hit my spyglass in precisely the right way.

I’ve been patient waiting for the water droplets to frame the blue sky. I’ve waited for just the right amount of glare to make the image interesting but not overwhelming. Today at 14:10 I got the spyglass photograph I promised myself almost a year ago.

Bringing Gower Home to Baglan

Last night saw a massive celebration event in Baglan, Port Talbot. Hundreds of people gathered for the WCADA annual reunion and this year we incorporated a celebration of WCADA’s involvement in the Bringing Gower Home project into the evening’s festivities.

WCADA have sent two groups to the Gower as part of Bringing Gower Home. The first group from WCADA’s base in Port Talbot went to Reynoldston in September and their celebration event was held in 12Cafe in Taibach. (You can read more about that here). Meanwhile, the second group from Swansea went out to Gower Heritage Centre in November. Last night was their celebration event sharing photographs from the day with family and friends. You can see the best of Group 2’s photographs here.

Incorporating the Bringing Gower Home event into the annual Christmas do seemed the easiest way to show off the great photography that the participants from Group 2 achieved but it didn’t stop there. The emphasis with WCADA is always on inclusivity, community, and family, and last night really did feel like one big family reunion. So, in true WCADA style, this event also shared again the first group’s images so that anyone who couldn’t make it to Group 1’s earlier events could also enjoy the achievements of all the Bringing Gower Home participants.

Congratulations to everyone involved. Same again soon yeah?

I am organising, delivering, and supporting this project in collaboration with Gower Landscape Partnership (GLP) which is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, Natural Resources Wales, City and County of Swansea, and National Trust.

A Final Day in Clydach

Every course I run inevitably comes  to an end but this doesn’t mean to say my participants won’t all meet up again and take photographs. The community aspect of my workshops means many participants will see each other around and already I’ve suggested that everybody meets up again under their own steam to take pictures together. The project was funded through Communities First who do amazing things here in Swansea to get people out and about and we’re making plans to show these final photographs as part of a celebratory exhibition event in February.

It’s always a challenge to take photographs when the weather isn’t perfect. This group have been challenged to consider the theme I am Great over four rainy weeks in winter. The results are … well… great!

Ceinwen

Sheree

Dawn

AnneMarie

Lindsey

Gemma

Vicky

Andy

Ben

Lisa

Idea Formation

It’s always a challenge to start a new piece of work. Sometimes the shape takes form in my head long before I start cutting. Sometimes it’s more of an organic experience. With Robot in Disguise, it’s more of a hybrid of the two. I’ve known roughly where I’m going on the cuts but haven’t convinced myself of the overall shape and assembly.

Such is the nature of the Structured Chaos series of work. If there is too much structure in the preliminary ideas then that undermines the chaos, and vice versa.

Each artwork is informed by Ben‘s photograph but isn’t controlled by it since all the cuts I’m making are on the reverse of his pictures. Nevertheless I have ideas on architecture and machinery forming in my head whilst cutting Robot in Disguise. The very nature of the title I’ve been given means the shapes are far less natural and more technological in nature.

WE’re planning on this being more of a mixed media piece eventually although there are no concrete plans formed yet on the exact nature of this assemblage. Whilst these inaugural layers are being cut there is much discussion and debate.

‘Robot in Disguise’ work in progress Melanie Ezra and Ben Honebone