alicia bruce

Leaving Blaenavon.  Sunday 28 August 2011

Wild Horses.

**BEST VIEWED WITH SOUND OFF**

Blaenavon make some noiiiiiise! 

Last night was my final official photo shoot for the Blaenavon project commissioned by Ffotogallery.  A series of portraits of young musicians at a gig in The Workman’s Hall.  With a tiny studio space set up in a small secluded corner to the left of the stage I made a portrait of each performer straight off the stage in the spirit of the James Ward painting ‘A Young Man’ 1815.

Above are a selection of the 22 portraits.

This was the Salvador Promotions launch gig. A group of savvy Blaenavon teenagers who’ve set up their own music promo company securing £2500 from The Princes Trust.

Bands included:
Headliners ‘The Guns’  with support from The Calling Card, INC, and The Loren Balaam Band. 

Thanks to Salvador Promotions for the re-tweets.  To Melissa & Adrian for assisting set up & gathering model release forms.  Thanks also to Paul for driving me to The Workmans Hall in monsoon like conditions and to the staff at Workmans Hall for letting me do a quick location scout on Friday afternoon.  Biggest thanks to the bands for taking time to participate straight after the gigs.  Some good souls in this community!

Before the Bard… & the saddest pony in the world

Tonight I photographed John Rodger as ‘The Bard’ & was lucky enough to have two assistants.  We were set up well in advance of Johns arrival & I’d chosen a lump of slag, an emblem of the post industrial landscape as the location.

Louise & I told Luke, my additional assistant, that although we’d be knee deep in horse & sheep poo remarkable things may happen.  We we tweaking with cameras when an unexpected curious wild pony arrived and decided to join us.  She examined all our equipment then took a shine to Luke who led her up to the position I’d chosen for the bard.  She then kept us company for a while before roaming into the distance.  Possibly the most melancholy pony I’ve ever seen but well worth a few snaps as we waited for our subject to arrive & the sun to set.

The photographs of John as ‘The Bard’ shall be shown at a later date.. Films in the lab tomorrow.

Tonight I photographed 32 members of Blaenavon’s Male Voice Choir.  I’ve been hoping to photograph the choir since I saw them singing on World Heritage Day but found them difficult to pin down… they get the school holidays off.

With the help of their coordinator Ian Cook I arranged to photograph ten members of the choir this evening at a studio I’d set up at The Workman’s Hall.  Thirty three showed up.  There are group portraits of the men  in many Blaenavon shops, pubs and publications.  I wanted to portray the choir as individuals but also as a collective.  Two of the thirty three portraits are above.

Thanks to Mike & Sheila from The Workman’s Hall for allowing us to use their wonderful space.  To Ian for helping gather the troops, to Louise for assisting and to Ffotogallery for providing a last minute spare part.

I spent yesterday photographing staff at The Big Pit National Coal Museum.  There are some great folks working there, many of them like Paul, above, are ex-miners.  Bethan, above, works in the Pit Cafeteria and is also a photographer.  She’s a 2010 Fine Art Photography graduate from Newport.  

I’m sad to report I did not get permission to photograph in the mine due to high visitor numbers.  Gutted.