BERNARD MITCHELL IN CONVERSATION WITH EMYR YOUNG
SWANSEA, January 2018

BERNARD MITCHELL YN SGWRSIO GYDAG EMYR YOUNG
Abertawe, Ionawr 2018

Photographers Roger Tiley, Emyr Young and Bernard Mitchell

After studying photography at Berkshire College of Art in the mid 1960's, Bernard Mitchell began his long career as a photojournalist working for Thomson Regional Newspapers. Bernard returned to Swansea many years later and in 2003 studied for a Masters degree in photography at Swansea Metropolitan University.

Back in 1966 as a student, he started a project to document the circle of painters, writers and musicians who had associated with Dylan Thomas in their homes and studios but that project extended to cover the wider arts, literature and photography communities across Wales and continues to this day. A new book titled 'Pieces of a Jigsaw' published in late 2017 presents a selection of images from his ongoing Welsh Arts Archive project.

Bernard gifted his archive of photographs of artists and writers of Wales to the Richard Burton Archive at Swansea University in 2016.

Ffoton had the great pleasure of speaking with Bernard at his home in early 2018.

See below for a small selection of Bernard's work, reproduced here on Ffoton with kind permission of the photographer.

Yma ar Ffoton trwy garedigrwydd y ffotograffydd fe welwch gasgliad bychan o'i waith isod.

View more of Bernard's work on his website www.bernardmitchell.co.uk

Gallery images © Bernard Mitchell are held and supplied by The Richard Burton Archives, Swansea University. Used with permission of the photographer.
Podcast images © Brian Carroll.

Please note: Comments or views made by interview participants are their own and are NOT necessarily the views of the Ffoton Wales team.
See our Terms page for more details.

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In conversation with Emyr Young.
BRIDGEND, South Wales, December 2014

YN SGWRSIO GYDAG EMYR YOUNG
Ym Mhen-y-bont ar Ogwr, DE CYMRU, Rhagfyr 2014

Looking out from Blackmills Wood, the study setting for Rob's Mametz Wood.

Rob Hudson is a photographer based in Cardiff and was our first interviewee as part of the Ffoton project. We interviewed him on location at BlackMill wood near Bridgend that inspired his enigmatic and poetical work on Mametz Wood: a battle where so many Welsh Soldiers perished during WW1.

It took Rob about 18 months to complete the project and he drew inspiration not only from the wood but from David Jones' 'In Parenthesis' an epic poem about the poet's recollections of World War 1 and the battle of Mametz Wood.

Y mae Rob Hudson yn ffotograffydd sydd yn byw ac yn gweithio yng Nghaerdydd. Rob oedd ein cyfweliad cyntaf a'r unig ffotograffyd inni gyfweld ar leoliad mewn coedwig ger Penybont. Dyma'r lle wnaeth ysbrydoli ei waith enigmatig a barddonol ei naws, 'Coedwig Mametz'. Y mae'r gwaith yn ingol ei naws ac yn ymgais i gyfleu'r frwydr lle lladdwyd cynifer o Gymry yn ystod y rhyfel byd cyntaf.

Bu Rob yn creu'r gwaith ym a dros gyfnod o ddeunaw mis ac fe dynnodd ysbrydoliaeth nid yn unig o goedwig Melin Du Penybont ond o waith David Jones' 'In Parenthesis' sef hanes y rhyfel a brwydr Mametz Wood trwy lygad bardd.

See below for a gallery of a small selection of Rob's work, reproduced here on Ffoton with kind permission of the photographer.
Visit Rob's Mametz Wood site www.mametzwood.org and his own website www.robhudsonland.co.uk
Follow him on Twitter @RobHudsonPhoto

Please note: Comments or views made by interview participants are their own and are NOT necessarily the views of the Ffoton Wales team. See our Terms page for more details.