#garry stuart

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"After my social documentary photography work in North Wales in the late 1970s I relocated to Swindon in Wiltshire to take up a Science teaching post in 1979. I also ran a school photography club and taught adult education photography courses at night schools.⁣

My own photographic activity at that time was photographing ⁣Motocross and Speedway racing on weekends as I was a motorcyclist ⁣and very interested in motorbikes. I earned a bit of freelance money ⁣selling prints and supplying the local daily newspaper with Swindon ⁣Speedway coverage.⁣

My Rockabilly photographs came about when I took my camera to a gig at a run down Swindon pub called The Greyhound. The band playing that night were The Polecats who had just had a record hit the charts and there were a lot of rockabilly fans crammed into a ⁣dilapidated backroom. This was my first introduction to live frenzied rockabilly dancing and moshing and the energy was amazing. ⁣

I think I shot a 36 exposure roll of Tri-X on the band and the dancers. My favourite photo that night was a post gig shot of the bass player leaning out of a 1960s Vauxhall Cresta window cigarette in hand and a slicked back James Dean hairstyle.⁣

Every Saturday morning and afternoon the Swindon Rockabilly kids hung out at a 50s style Milk Bar called The Tartan Cafe. I took a ⁣bunch of 7x5 black and white prints of the Polecats gig down there ⁣to show them and was surprised when they insisted on buying them at 50p each. I also photographed them in and around the cafe and took prints in to show and sell to them. Soon after I photographed the more famous band The Stray Cats in Bristol and those pics were ⁣

popular too"

"During my undergraduate and postgraduate years at Bangor University (Plant Biology) I was spending time experimenting with my photography. As I have previously stated influences and exposure to the work of other photographers was limited in the early to mid 1970s. Camera magazines were mostly filled with lens resolution charts, chocolate box landscapes or cheesy glamour features. Serious documentary photography could be seen in the Sunday newspaper colour supplements notably the Biafra War and famine and of course the work of the many photographers covering the Vietnam War. Gritty mainly black and white photo-journalism was what made an impression on me.

I was then introduced to the work of Philip Jones Griffiths who turned his camera onto the English at leisure. His work showed me that there was value in photographing what was around me wherever I happened to be, no need to go to an exotic war or foreign famine although these were indeed worthy subjects.

By taking on Student Community Action and Disablement Income Group (DIG) projects it was possible to make images that were worthwhile and helpful to these causes and which helped ordinary people in their own personal ‘wars’ within our own society due to their unique challenges and circumstances. I realised that I didn’t have to go away to make significant images they were all around if I could see them through my camera.

My study of the Welsh community living in the Hirael district of Bangor was primarily about the people who made up that community and of course involved a lot of street portraiture. It was also important to document the streets and houses in which the people lived as these were under threat of demolition and erasure. I spent a lot of time wandering the streets of Hirael and Bangor in general.

I found myself taking photographs that were often abstract compositions taken from the urban environment. I was interested in the patterns of garage doors, street kerbs, pavements, concrete and patinated corrugated iron.

I also found it interesting to photograph the created landscapes of public parks their paths and topiary"

" Hirael, North Wales 1976"

"One of my favourite and most valued portraits is the one I took of Willie Gordon Jones of Hirael North Wales in 1976. At the time I had no idea of his war record in the 14th Battalion Royal Welch Fusiliers and that he was a decorated veteran of the Battle Of The Somme.

Later I got to drink a few cups of tea with him and talk a little bit about his experiences but not press him too much.

He returned from the war and worked at Penrhyn Quarry until he retired. He was the Deacon of a Chapel in Hirael"

This publication contains photographs from my work in the changing Welsh community of the Hirael area of Bangor. The Hirael community free around Bangor harbour due the increasing demand for slate during the Industrial Revolution. Previous to this area consisted of nothing but a few households gleaning a living from the sea, but as slate brought ships and industrial activity a thriving working class community was born. Hirael possesed many features characteristic of a water front community.

It was a poor working class area wich developed as a separated community from the rest of Bangor, a separateness wich can be detected even today.

Because Hirael was a distinct unit possesing a feeling character and individuality it became the focus of my photographic study to me it represents an island of the "old community" eroded on all sides by the sea of modern development. In this area one can witness the transitions from old to new in the space of a few streets. Only a few of the original streets remain, half of them derelict, yet the area has held onto its past and individuality with atenacy characteristic of people. In spite of being moved to the Maesgeirchen Council State or nearby modern flats, the Hirael inhabitants still boast a separate identity.