The National Library of Wales
Photos of Wales’s Eisteddfodau
Tue, 31 Jul 07 14:11:00
This week sees the publication Eisteddfodau Geoff Charles - a volume of photographs by a person who did more that anyone else to capture the eisteddfodau, large and small, of Wales. Although Geoff wasn’t ever an eisteddfod competitor or organiser he travelled to hundreds of eisteddfodau across Wales from the 1930s onwards and in this beautiful collection the author Ioan Roberts chooses some of the most interesting pictures of a unique Welsh events.
Ioan Roberts explained: ‘Although the eisteddfod wasn’t part of Geoff’s upbringing on Offa’s Dyke he became very close to the culture and community of the eisteddfodau and new its secrets and culture. At the beginning of the 1980s, with Geoff’s authority, 120,000 of Geoff’s negatives were catalogued by the staff at The National Library of Wales. Part of this massive collection includes a special section of thousands of photographs of eisteddfodau, from the local, regional, national and international – the bread and butter of documentary photography for local and Y Cymro newspapers.’
Geoff contribution to documenting Wales’s eisteddfodau over thirty years was his acceptance to the Gorsedd of the Bards at the Lampeter National Eisteddfod of 1984.
Eisteddfodau Geoff Charles will be officially launched at the Drwm in The National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth on 31 July. The book is published by Y Lolfa in cooperation with The National Library.
This is the third book in a series of publications of Geoff Charles’s photographs edited by Ioan Roberts. Cymru Geoff Charles was published in 2004 and Cefn Gwlad Geoff Charles in 2006. All publications include over a 100 black and white photographs with captions and explanations in Welsh only.
‘As a National Library we have begun the work of digitising a large part of Geoff Charles’s collection and thousands of his photographs can now be seen on the Library’s website. However, it’s always a pleasure to see photographs between the two covers of such an interesting and beautiful book as this one by Y Lolfa. The National Library of Wales is very glad to have cooperated on this series,’ said Andrew Green, Librarian of The National Library of Wales.
Eisteddfodau Geoff Charles, £12.95 (in Welsh only)
Ed.: Ioan Roberts
Links:
Geoff Charles on the Library’s website
Geoff Charles photographs of the Second World War
Y Lolfa
Eisteddfod on the Wikipedia
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
Siôn Jobbins, NLW Press Office: 01970 632902 sij@llgc.org.uk
