Street Wise – Lens Photo Festival, 18-19 November

Thu, 29 Sep 11 09:38:00

Welsh streets will be the talk of the town, or at least, the annual Lens photographic collection in November. On Friday 18 and Saturday 19 November 2011 some of Wales’s most renowned photographers will give illustrated talks on their photographic works based on the theme of Street Photography.

 

This will be the seventh annual Lens photographic festival and this year sees a new development as the newly formed FfotoAber festival which exhibits photos across Aberystwyth. www.ffotoaber.com 

 

‘The Lens weekend is always a pleasurable and interesting get-together for all those interested in photography. We attract professional and amateur photographers as well as people interested in social history. Past speakers at the annual Lens festival have included the world-famous Phillip Jones-Griffiths and David Hurn. This year we’ll be working closely with a new venture for photography in Aberystwyth – FfotoAber. That’s another great new development,’ said William Troughton who’s responsible for the Library’s photographic collection and is one of the Lens organisers.

 

The speakers at the 2011 Lens Festival are:

Bedwyr Williams: Bedwyr Williams is a conceptual artist that lives and works near Caernarfon. In 2005 he represented Wales in Biennale in Venice. He has exhibited in Europe and beyond, and his work appears in various collections such as Saatachi Collection, Government Art Collection and the National Museum Wales, Cardiff.

Jon Pountey: Jon was born in Pontrefact in 1978. He studied photography at Mid Warwichshire College and later at Howard Gardens in Cardiff. He is now settled in Cardiff as a commercial and advertising photographer. His passion for pop culture and history culminated in his recent project Cardiff before Cardiff.

Tom Wood: Tom Wood was born in 1951 in rural west of Ireland. He studied Fine Art Painting at Leicester Polytechnic (1973-76). He moved to New Brighton, near Liverpool in 1978 where he became known locally as ‘Photieman’. For the next 25 years, he photographed life on Merseyside – everything from night clubs to football supporters. He has exibited at Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and the Shanghai Biennale.

Dr Paul O’Leary: Paul is a Senior Lecturer at Aberystwyth University History and Welsh History Department. He is the author of Immigration and Integration: the Irish in Wales, 1798 – 1922 (2000) and joint editor of A Tolerant Nation? Exploring Ethnic Diversity in Wales (2003). He is currently working on a book called Claiming the Streets: Processions and Urban Culture in South Wales, c. 1830-1880.

Scott Waby: Originally a commercial photographer, Scott left his native Somerset in 1999 to work on the fledgling digitisation programme at the National Library. Now Head of the Digitisation Unit, Scott has worked on a variety of pioneering projects.

Photos at NLW
The National Library of Wales’s collection of photography www.llgc.org.uk/index.php is huge. It includes some 800,000 photographs including the first ever photograph taken in Wales – daguerrotype of Margam Castle near Port Talbot – by the Rev. Calvert Richard Jones in 1841. Many of the old photos can be viewed on the Library’s website. 

Lens – Street Photography
18-19 November 2011
The National Library of Wales
Aberystwyth SY23 3BU

Tickets: 
Friday Evening 18 November only £5. 
Friday Evening and Saturday (18 and 19 November) £22 including lunch.
(£16 NUS/UMCA) 
Online tickets: www.llgc.org.uk/lens 

For more information:
Siôn Jobbins, NLW Press Office: 01970 632 902 post@llgc.org.uk