About
A few bibliographical details and a short article on why I photograph...  Paul White on location at Nash Point in Glamorgan 2009EDUCATION: 1995 - 1997 Nottingham Trent University 1993 - 1995 Carmarthen College of Technology and Art SOLO EXHIBITIONS: Aberystwyth Art Centre 1992 Aberystwyth Museum 1995 Henry Thomas Gallery, Carmarthen 1998 Swansea Museum 1999 Nottingham Museum 1999 Shrewsbury Art Centre 1999 MOMA Wales, Y Tabernacl, Machynlleth 1999 Cardigan Theatre Mwldan 2000 Colwyn Bay Library Gallery 2006 Llanrwst Almshouse 2006 Newport Museum 2005/06 National Assembly of Wales, Cardiff 2006 - 2007 Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Novemeber 2007 Hammerson PLC, Grosvenor Street, London 2008 Penrhyn Castle Aug. 2008 Penrhyn Castle Oct. 2008 Brighton Museum & Art Gallery 2008 - 2009 Ceredigon Museum, Aberystwyth 2009 Tower House Gallery, Knighton (August 2011) Norman Rea Gallery, York University (February 2012) Carmarthen Museum (May - June 2012) GROUP EXHIBITIONS: Tregaron Library (with Painter/Photographer Fiona Wright) 1991 National Eisteddfod of Wales 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996 Atrium Gallery, Cheltenham 1994 Wrexham Library 1998 COLLECTIONS: National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth holds 140 images in its archives of ‘Derelict Mansions of Wales’ Private collections throughout UK, Europe and USA.  At Baron Hill 2008 SELECTED PUBLICATIONS: 'Attempt to Depict Hafod in Cardiganshire' by David S. Yerburgh 2000 'Inscape' Journal Nos 59 2005 'Country Quest' April 2007 'In This Place' by Trevor Fishlock 2007 'Planet: The Welsh Internationalist' Issue 189 June/July 2008     Cambrian News, newspaper article 2000  Cambrian News newspaper article 1998 Bibliographical Details and Influences: Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion - Thomas Lloyd, Julian Orbach and Robert Scourfield Influences: The Daybooks of Edward Weston Aaron Siskind; Pleasures and Terrors - Carl Chiarenza Ghosts Along The Mississippi - Clarence John Laughlin The Idea of Louis Sullivan - John Szarkowski Industrial Facades - Bernd Becher & Hilla Becher Websites: see 'links' page Technical Notes: Photography is both a scientific and creative art form. I have never considered myself a particularly technical photographer. I use certain methods and have used the same film and developer (unless discontinued) for almost twenty years. I am pleased about this and although I have experimented with different processes and various films, paper and chemicals I have always felt they detracted from the subject matter in a photograph rather than enhance. I also use very little darkroom trickery as possible. I will however add some tone to a featureless sky, if the picture would benefit, and lighten deep shadows if they reveal detail that would enhance the finished print. I like my photography to be simply created. I like the fact that I could, if required, take a photograph and then produce a print without the aid of electricity. I use a battery in my light meter but experience has taught me I could estimate this and I use a bulb in my enlarger but this too could be either replaced with channelled daylight or a contact print of the negative could be made. This makes the photographic process a little more of an organic experience. This is the reason I continue to use traditional sheet film rather than use a digital camera. I enjoy the procedure; loading film, taking a photograph, unloading film (and then); loading film into a developing tank, developing the film, unloading film from the developing tank (and then); drying the film, placing the film in an enlarger and then finally making the print and watching it under the red safelight forming before your eyes. The time spent in a darkroom working on a few select negatives remains, for me at least, one of the true pleasures of photography. The excitement of a promising negative that produces a print equal to, and occasionally beyond, that excitement often leaves me laughing as loud as the birds at dawn. When a successful photograph emerges from the fixing chemicals and is quickly washed then examined under daylight and that single image captures everything you had hoped it would capture but then also has some tiny element that increases its brilliance, a photographer then realises that all that purpose, all those 3am starts, all those miles sweating under the weight of equipment, has all been worth much more than worthwhile. I am not seeking that one true perfect photograph. I am seeking a portfolio of work that I will be content with. Equipment used: All photographs taken using Wista 5x4inch field camera with 75mm, 90mm, 135mm, 150mm, 180mm and 210mm Schnieder and Rodenstock lenses. Printed on De Vere and LPL5451 enlargers. Ilford film used and processed using Ilford and Kentmere papers. Thanks A special thanks must go to the manufacturers of Kentmere Photographic Papers for part sponsoring me on and off for the last 10 years. A further thanks also to all those people who have emailed and written suggesting potential sites and those people who have given directions whilst I have been out searching for these properties. And, of course, to those who have sent either via email or hard copy images of houses that have been long demolished or properties I simply had no idea existed.  Blaen Blodau 2009  Wista Field Camera used by Paul White.  A 5x4 inch negative. The larger negative size means it needs less enlargement and therefore the grain structure is less magnified hence a better quality image.
 Copa Hill, Cwmystwyth Lead Mines 1993Notes on why I photograph... When I was younger, 6 or 7 years old, and living in a small village in Leicestershire I would wake early every morning around 6am. I rose before my family, raided the biscuit tin, and left the house. Quietly, I lifted the latch up off the door, and slowly, wheeled my bicycle through the side alley and past the front of the house. My little legs moved speedily once away from the house. I cycled to the newsagent and purchased sweets and soccer stickers. I also wandered around. I was a shy child and did not speak much, nor with clarity. The streets of where I lived were quiet at that time, very few people, fewer cars. I sought the green areas of my village, those beyond the ever increasing urban sprawl. I presume I sought the solitude and quietness. A few years later when I was 12 my parents moved to West Wales. Over the years I walked over my area; following streams, climbing fences, exploring marsh and wetlands, pathways and hills. The landscape opened up for me. It wasn’t until I was 17 years old did I really notice the light at the beginning and ending of each day. One evening I went out walking across a field not far from where we lived. The low light cast an orange glow and lit the trees and hedgerows with warmth of slowly burning embers. It was at that point that I thought I should purchase a camera a document such times. My first exposures, in color, were not particularly impressive but after a month I exposed my first ever black and white film. I walked up to the abandoned lead mining works of Cwmystwyth (Ceredigion), and exposed a whole roll of film quite rapidly. Once the prints were returned from the processors I immediately knew I had found the medium that suited my demands. Over the following two years I explored the Cambrian Mountains, which were walking distance to where I lived. My desire for solitude was easily found. The results from my photographing from this time was not always satisfying and although I had almost immediately began printing my own work the quality I sought lacked. At this time I was working as an assistant in the photographic department of the University library in Aberystwyth. Although not extensive, the library held a healthy number of monographs of photographers’ works. I began reading all I could and was especially drawn to the work of Lee Friedlander, Ansel Adams, Minor White and Edward Weston.  Cefn Coch, Cwmystwyth 1996Edward Weston’s Daybooks struck a spiritual and emotive chord within me. Weston had passion. His words and life helped me grow, slowly, a photographic sense. I understood his viewpoints and why he’d made certain exposures. I purchased a large format camera. I was 22 years old. I considered every image as if it was my ultimate image. I took my time, breathed and let the subject in through my lens and onto the ground glass. A learning curve had begun and a quality to my images that equalled the purpose to my wanderings. The landscape photographer must, on some level, be self contained. To consistently walk around, deep within a landscape, one must become un-engaged with the human world and enter a kind of trance with your subject matter. This has a consequence of loneliness. On reflection this is a necessity. Without solitude I do not believe I could have found the focus, perhaps borne out of boredom, to dedicate myself to the photographic practice. A days outing – a walk was planned, a map scanned for possible interest, a route weaved. The gear prepared. The alarm set for an early rise. And from these uncertain steps an adventure begins, hopefully accumulating in seeing some sights; rock formations, wildlife, a ruined cottage, a twisted tree and finding some thoughts worthwhile as well as some songs sung along the way. And after a day out, walking home content, the anticipation of a hot meal, then a quick rest. After a rest preparing the chemicals to develop the negatives, and, if energy allowed, setting up the darkroom. Many prints were made and many, many disappointments and so few successes but nonetheless always making, though not necessarily realising it, headway and tiny steps towards a passion as shared by millions of others. I was eventually persuaded by a friend to attend college to study photography further. I spent two years at Carmarthen College in South Wales and a further two years at Nottingham Trent University. I found a life outside my solitude, a solitude I still cherished, but I also found a space to let people in. Whilst at college I became aware of the work of Aaron Siskind. Edward Weston had taught me to find a substance in my subject matter. Siskind did the same but by flattening the perspective. His work came as a revelation. His images, as Weston’s had some years back, sat comfortable with me and once explored on the page his images became tactile. Could it be they seemed to act as a parallel emotion to my solitude? I soon began documenting tiny abstractions in walls and old signs. For me, as it did for Siskind, my work acted as a universal language. Paul White October 2008  Pub Sign Abstraction, Nottingham 1997  Llanstinan House 2009  Beudiau, Ceredigon 2009  Road to Nanteos 2009  |
