About

A few bibliographical details and a short article on why I photograph...


Paul White on location at Nash Point in Glamorgan 2009


EDUCATION:

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:

When I began this project in 1995/96 I did not realize just how much of my time it would take up. The actuality of photographing the houses only makes up a small proportion of the time. The rest of the time is spent researching, locating and planning the trips to the houses. I have used many, many books as reference but poor planning on my behalf meant I did not always write down the sources of much of the information included on this website. (Almost, perhaps, unforgivable since I've spent four years a student and a further ten years working in academic libraries!) I now intend to do this, although it may take some time to find all my reference sources. I have also included other books by particular photographers’ who have influenced me. I urge you to seek out the works of these photographers, their individual styles are always in the forefront of my mind when I am taking photographs.


Bibliography:

Books
The Lost Houses of Wales – Thomas Lloyd
The Companion Guide to South Wales – Elizabeth Beazley & Peter Howell
The Companion Guide to North Wales - Elizabeth Beazley & Peter Howell
Forgotten Welsh Houses – Michael Tree & Mark Baker
Houses of the Welsh Countryside – Peter Smith
Glamorgan – The Greater Houses - The Royal Commission
Peterwell – Bethan Phillips
About Aberpergwm - Elizabeth F. Belcham
Peacocks in Paradise – Elisabeth Inglis-Jones
Shell Guides to Wales series
Tours in Wales 1811 – Richard Fenton
Wild Wales – George Borrows
A Tour in Wales – Thomas Pennant
Good Men and True - Erwyd Howells
The Welsh House - Iorwerth Cyfeiliog Peate
Historic Parks & Gardens in Ceredigion - Caroline Palmer with Penny David & Ros Laidlaw
Historic Carmarthenshire Homes and their Families - Francis Jones
Historic Cardiganshire Homes and their Families - Francis Jones
Ordnance Survey Pathfinder & Landranger series maps

Pevesner Architectural Guides: The Building of Wales Series. (complete list below)

Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion - Thomas Lloyd, Julian Orbach and Robert Scourfield
Clwyd, - Edward Hubbard
Glamorgan - John Newman
Gwent/Monmouthshire - John Newman
Gwynedd - Richard Haslam, Julian Orbach and Adam Voelcker
Pembrokeshire - Thomas Lloyd, Julian Orbach and Robert Scourfield
Powys - Richard Haslam




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 1993


Notes 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 1996


Edward 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