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At the weekend we crossed the border to stay with friends in Winchester for a couple of days. Winchester has a good claim to be called the heart of England. It was the capital of Alfred the Great, and remained…
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August Sander and his Germans
The National Museum in Cardiff is currently showing a generous selection of the portraits of August Sander, possibly the best-known large series of photographs produced in the first half of the twentieth century. It’s hard to explain how it feels…
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Sophy Rickett’s missing women
At the centre of ‘The curious moaning of Kenfig Burrows’, Sophy Rickett’s collection of photographs in the Glynn Vivian Art Galley, is Cupid, a seventeenth century oil painting from the Gallery’s foundation collection. It’s safe to say that this work…
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Television, books and lists
Television is scared stiff of books. It’s different on the radio, and it used to be different on television in the distant past – remember Melvyn Bragg’s excellent Read all about it In the 1970s? – but those who decide…
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Greening Swansea: a forgotten pioneer
Greening cities and towns, we might imagine, is a contemporary concern – a response to the realisation that we’re rapidly destroying the earth’s environment and depleting its non-human lifeforms. Swansea has its share of green activists and agitators working to…
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Thereza Dillwyn Llewelyn, selenophotographer
If you visit the Penllergare Valley Woods, as we did last week, you can’t leave without developing a strong respect for the estate’s chief creator, John Dillwyn Llewelyn. Photographic pioneer, astronomer, botanist, orchid collector, landscapist, inventor – he used his…
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The hunt for Twrch Trwyth
The other day I walked down to Mumbles to get my hair cut (a no. 8 shave all over, in case you’re interested). In my normal barber’s there was one customer in the only chair, and four others waiting. The…
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Sebon glan, sebon budr
Daeth newyddion da o Lyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru‘r wythnos yma: bod y Llyfrgell wedi prynu un o’r ddau fersiwn gwreiddiol o’r llun dyfrlliw enwog Salem gan Sydney Curnow Vosper, cyn arwerthiant yng Nghaerdydd. Mae’n hollol briodol bod llun a ddisgrifir yn…
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Edgar Degas does some more ironing
A while ago I drew attention to the pictures Edgar Degas made of women ironing. I tried to show how this unusual theme brought out the best in him as a painter. This week, in Avignon, I came across another…
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Werner Herzog’s pilgrimage to Paris
Many think Werner Herzog our greatest living film-maker. His major fiction films of the 1970s and 1980s will always find new viewers. Aguirre, Wrath of God, a study in conspiracy, tyranny and madness, has a claim to be one of…