Product Description

For 35 years this extraordinary collection of photographs remained hidden from the world. Taken around 1971/2, by young photographer Robert Haines, they record life in the Welsh valleys, in the village of Heolgerrig and nearby Merthyr Tydfil. Heolgerrig was a very close-knit community with Welsh the first language. It was a mining community where most of the men worked underground and life seemed to revolve around the pub and the chapel. Merthyr Tydfil, once the Iron Capital of the world, had a justifiable reputation as tough with characters such as hard man, Melvin Webber, who died after being blasted by a shotgun, and Mad Malcolm for whom no chemical substance was too strong. The early Seventies were a time of flux and, looking at these powerful photographs now, many of the extraordinary characters featured seem to have drifted in from a previous century. Haines photographed the local people with enthusiasm and energy. Some he knew well, others were complete strangers. Some spent their days in the pub, others worked underground, living conditions were often very poor. The photographs speak to us today of a world very different to our own.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40551 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 96 pages

About the Author
Born in Wales in 1952, Robert Haines became interested in film and photography at a young age. He has worked as a photographer, a film cameraman and as a journalist and for many years was a partner in a agency supplying news items, photographs, radio and television features to the media. His photographs have been exhibited at the Photographer s Gallery, London, and published in The Sunday Times, The Telegraph and newspapers, magazines and books throughout the world.

Customer Reviews

Dickyseat
This is a wonderful series of photographs. So often you look at photographs of people in books without knowing anything about them. In this book there are little anecdotes about all the people featured. You also get a strong feeling of intimacy with the subjects which I suspect came from the fact that the photographer was part of the community and not a casual visitor looking in from the outside. The photographs are beautiful and the sense of history encapsulated within the books pages engrossing. Good value and highly recommended!!

A gem
A snapshot of a Wales long gone. The tales and the images offer a tender glimpse on a gallery of characters from a community that is no more, but whose likes we are all familar with. A pleasure to own.

What a brilliant book
This is a fantastic book, looking at real life pictures from the seventies. It's the type of book you can read over and over again and really enjoy the pictures that seem to come to life as you look at them.