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The
Swansea Gang
The Swansea Gang
By Bernard Mitchell
Reproduced with kind permission of Planet - The Welsh
Internationalist Magazine (Article first published - Planet
Issue 120)
The
accident of your place of birth is a funny thing. Who would
think, when travelling down the valley through the grimy
terraces of Plasmarl and the Hafod, that you would emerge
to the freedom of the Bay and the ever-changing sea?
Out of this magical place came a group of people whose creative
talents would help to change our view of Wales. But the
fact that they were all born in Swansea was not the only
common factor. It was, more importantly, the poetry and
friendship of Dylan Thomas which acted as a catalyst to
their individual work.
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this story should really start at "Ralph the Books",
Alexandra Road. Walking past the newspapers, cigarettes and
washing line of dirty mags, I entered an Aladdin's cave, past
1/- paperbacks into a darkly lit emporium where on a wall of
books above a small paper sign stating "Welsh" hung
a small oil of Dylan. This was my introduction to the man. I
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Further
down the road, opposite the Library and School of Art, is
the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery; never changing, it stood then
as a memorial to art, gilded portraits of the dead, and paperweights
preserved in aspic. Out of this graveyard burst, with all
the joy of spring, the work of Ceri Richards with his bright
and erotic paintings.
It was 29thof April 1965, my birthday. I was a student finishing
my education at the Old Guildhall, now the grandly refurbished
T? Llên surrounded by the Docks on one side and the
"spit-and-sawdust" pubs of Somerset Place on the
other. With a 1932 Leica, borrowed on approval from Evan Jones'
Camera Shop in Wind Street, I was photographing trawlers unloading
at the nearby fish dock. The town shook with an explosion,
the air full of burning gas and thick black smoke as the Gasworks
blew up. My guardian angel had arrived in splendour. There
followed three pictures on the front page of the South Wales
Echo and on the following day in the Daily Telegraph.
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With
many admiring glances from fellow students, the Leica was
mine, paid for, and my life as a photographer had started.
I left Swansea with a heavy heart. With camera and suitcase
I arrived at Reading, home of the biscuit, to study photography
at the Berkshire College of Art.
It was in the
Chemist's shop window I saw it, at Cemetery Junction. A
brand new Rollieflex T in battleship grey. Terms were agreed
with the trusting owner and a search began to raise the
weekly sum. Total price then a princely £80.00. The
Reading Evening Post seemed an easy target. There I met
Haydn, a Cardiff man, number 2 in the photographic department.
"I know you from somewhere," he said. "Swansea
gas explosion wasn't it. I developed your film at the South
Wales Echo."
It was then that I bought the BBC recording of Under Milk
Wood, Richard Burton narrating. I was back home again. With
an enforced period off college, my grant being withdrawn
due to lack of attendance, I embarked on a project to record
on film the Swansea friends of Dylan - the Gang.
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It
was with some trepidation that I entered the home of Dr Daniel
Jones, high above Mumbles overlooking the Bay. My fear quickly
subsided, however, under the influence of his genial conversation.
Noon quickly arrived and master and pupil transferred the
photo session to the nearby Newton Inn. There is something
special about the light which enters a pub, clinging to the
froth on the glasses. With pint following pint the photographs,
like the conversation, flowed. At three o'clock, however,
the previously unseen Mrs Jones arrived on a whirlwind and
whisked Daniel away with threats of locking him in his room
until he composed some music. Photo and drinking session over!
I returned to Ralph's, the Arthur Daley's of the book world,
and photographed him, fag in hand for posterity, not forgetting
before it's too late the inside of the shop, where Dylan browsed
and borrowed books while working at the nearby BBC studios.
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By
United Welsh I travelled with my now beloved Rollie to the
cliffs at Pennard, to meet Vernon Watkins, his bungalow perched
on the edge of the path to Three Cliffs Bay. Here we walked
along the headland, his white hair flowing in the sea breeze
until we returned to the tranquillity of his home, where only
a fly disturbed the light through the window of his study.
From High Street Station to Paddington to meet the last two
people in the group; Ceri Richards at his Chelsea studio and
Fred Janes at Dulwich Village. At the time Ceri was living
with his wife, Frances, at Edith Grove. Ceri was a large man
with an informal and gentle character. He worked crouched
over a drawing on the floor. The light flowed into the studio
through the floor-to-ceiling windows and all around the walls
were covered with drawings with paintings stacked in corners.
It is strange that Ceri only met Dylan the week before Dylan
left for America, where he died on the 9th of November 1953.
However his work had been influenced by the poems for years.
It is a sad fact that Dylan's early death cut short a potential
friendship and collaboration between them.
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Ceri Richards drawing
of Dylan Thomas |
Drawings by Ceri Richards from the Collected Poems
of Dylan Thomas
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Onward
to Dulwich Village where Fred Janes lived on the edge of the
park with his wife, Mary, who served tea and cakes in the
south Walian tradition. Fred worked in a small front room
of the large town house, so packed with tools and equipment
of all descriptions that I had great difficulty finding space
for a camera among the clutter. At the time he was working
on geometric constructions of plastic and marbles.
I
printed a selection of the photographs and, on returning to
Swansea, took them to the Glynn Vivian Gallery where the rather
portly Curator told me in no uncertain terms that the Glynn
was an Art Gallery and that they didn't have photographs in
here! After several further rejections a rather crestfallen
photographer consigned the collection to a drawer. No one
seemed interested in the Swansea Gang.
In
1983, still convinced of their historical importance, I published
Swansea - Reflections in Black and White a collection of old
photographs which included my photographs of the friends of
Dylan, to preserve them for posterity.
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By 1990, however, the tide had turned in Swansea. The Glynn
was organising the first Ceri Richards Festival, "Dunvant
Blossoms". The Gallery purchased four of the prints of
Ceri for the brochure and at last my photograph of Swansea's
greatest painter hung on the wall of the now Ceri Richards
Gallery.
Some thirty years
have passed since the photographs were taken and I recently
gave the negatives and original prints to the National Library
of Wales for safekeeping. I would like to thank Dr Mike Francis
and Iestyn Hughes who have now printed and bound the 160 photographs
in two red volumes from the original negatives.
The author, Bernard
Mitchell, was born in Morriston, Swansea and worked in newspapers
for thirty years as photographer. He is now a free-lance photographer
specialising in the arts in Wales.
Bernard Mitchell is responsible for incorporating and developing
the Welsh Arts Archive within the Artcymru.co.uk site and
holds the copyright to all the images within.
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Portrait of Ceri Richards by Bernard Mitchell |
TO FIND OUT MORE
The
Welsh Arts Archive is dedicated to preserving a photographic
record of the leading figures within the arts in Wales.
Although,
at present, the archive contains only an image of each artist,
with a few lines of descriptive text, it is intended to
develop the project into an education resource for research
purposes.
An
interactive CD ROM is in development and it is hoped that
a substantial hard-bound copy of the archive will be published
in the near future.
To
find out more contact us at the Welsh Arts Archive -
EMAIL
US HERE
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Contact Bernard Mitchell at:
info@welshartsarchive.org.uk
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All images are copyright of Bernard Mitchell 2002 |
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