Welsh Slag - Jake Gardiner

Jake Gardiner has been photographing local industrial materials from the Pontypool area. Using a scientific approach he has documented Welsh slag heaps and rocks that once fuelled the factories of Pontypool to create these inciting and beautiful photographs.

There is nothing in the desert - By Harry Rose

"The photographic project ‘There is nothing in the desert’ deals with the documentation and process of time and lingering. Having to wait for change to happen, if it ever comes at all. Nature has been left unmanaged to grow out of its original man made constraints and uniformed aesthetics. Roots and vines now twist and lurch across the woodland floor as apposed to being kept back with the instruments and control of man. The process in which the photographs have been taken has undergone an element of time between each medium and visual ‘result’. Working at first with colour medium format film, to then be digitally captured and scanned onto a computer, which then printed the images onto a plastic slide which would lead to a projection re envisioned back onto the location where the photographs where first taken. Time has passed at length in between each stage of the project, creating a conscience that confesses and gives into the statement that change is abundant here and has been left to develop and mold into its own natural state."- Harry Rose

Oliver and Harry do a midnight Shoot around Pontypool and the American Gardens

Exhibition at the Market

On Tuesday afternoon, a group of us Photo Art students headed off to Pontypool Indoor Market where the two market stalls provided for us to be used whichever way we found best, waited empty. The space has now been transformed into a public exhibition space showing each of our ongoing projects at their current stage.
Today, Wednesday being the busy market day in Pontypool, the exhibition was opened for the entire day. The line of photographs and brief artist statements covering the walls caught the attention of many passers-by - some stopped for a chat and a piece of cake, and all were encouraged to leave a message in a guestbook. From now on, the exhibition shall be opened every Wednesday with a few of us always present to answer questions and hear opinions. By publicly displaying our work in progress, we hope to arise the community's curiosity and interest towards the project, and invite them to take part in it.

Exploring Pontypool

After receiving the briefing and being introduced to the general history of Pontypool we were sent off to explore and gather information that would suit our individual needs. The means of doing research are as surely as diverse as the lot of us, and range from spending time in a library surrounded by a book fortress, to chatting with locals, to climbing on the highest spot of Pontypool Park to listen the wind. Getting more and more familiar with the town and its people is beginning to make our artistic ideas flourish. This adventure has only just begun.

 

 

 

First site visit to Pontypool!

It was a particularly chilly Friday morning, but donned in coats, scarves hats and gloves the second years of Photographic Art trooped on into Pontypool for the first site visit. A talk in the Museum, a visit to the Market stalls which they will be inhabiting, followed by a free roam of the surrounding area, Photo Art had a exciting day hearing and finding plenty of things to inspire and create a real buzz around the town.

 

 

 

Pontypool Project

Second Year students on the BA(Hons) Photographic Art course at Newport have begun a new and exciting project set in the Welsh town of Pontypool, some 8 miles north of Caerleon. As part of a large regeneration programme currently underway in the town, the students have been commissioned, by Torfaen County Borough Council, to develop a number of projects in and around the town. This blog will serve to document this project and the work of the individuals involved. It will be managed by the participants themselves and will include regular updates, news, images and any other information relating to the project.