Coal Faces - Life after Coal in Afan Valley

Tina Carr and Annemarie Schöne’s exhibition of large format colour photographs looks at the reality of life in one small Welsh valley, 10 miles inland from Port Talbot; the images define the physical context, the environment, as well as revealing the people that inhabit the valley. Three major projects in the Upper Afan Valley since 1990 have resulted not only in this exhibition, but in the accompanying book “Coalfaces – Life After Coal in the Afan Valley” and a video archive which has been generously presented in its entirety to the National Screen and Sound Archive. The photographers describe their role as “facilitators empowering a community to express concerns that touch us all, especially here in Wales, and with particular reference to the present plight of the valleys and their hard- pressed communities.”

The two photographers have been living in Ceredigion for 25 years, and have worked in close collaboration on a number of projects and commissions, including "Pigs and Ingots", a study of the lead and silver mines of Ceredigion which resulted in an exhibition and their first book, published by Y Lolfa in 1993. Their work has won numerous awards, and is held in many public and private collections both in the UK and internationally. In 2003 they won the Creative Wales Award.

The exhibition continues until 6 September 2008