Photographing Wales’ seaside destinations
Jon Pountney’s first commercial photography exhibition shines a light on Wales’ seaside towns, writes Jenny White...
ON THE beach at Barry a storm blows in and a shaft of light illuminates the promenade with almost supernatural brilliance.
The moment, captured on camera by Treforest-based photographer Jon Pountney, forms part of his new exhibition opening at Gallery TEN in Cardiff this week.
The whole exhibition – his first commercial show and Gallery TEN’s first photography exhibition – is dedicated to Wales’ seaside destinations Barry, Llandudno, Porthcawl, Mumbles, Aberystwyth, Aberavon, Mwnt and Monknash.
The show captures the surreal nature of our seaside resorts – their liminality, their faded glory, the battering they get from the forces of nature.
You experience the ferocity of rain and waves, the neon brilliance of technicolour lights and the softer tones of sand, sea and sky.
In several photos, people chat, enjoy refreshments or simply sit and absorb their surroundings, mostly oblivious to the camera – Pountney is a skilled observer of people as well as places.
“The coast is a metaphorical and literal edge land and it collects people and objects at the fringes of society, people who are maybe wanting to escape the clamour of conventionality or looking to slow down and retire,” says Pountney.
“My seaside work developed organically from separate trips around Wales, for work and pleasure over many years, and I noticed different pictures began to group together as a cohesive whole.
“As an artist I’m fascinated by how the seaside can be seen as the quintessence of the British/Welsh experience, with its collection of lonely seaside resorts, coastal landscape and gaudy entertainment.”
Pountney’s love of photography goes back to his teens, when he was given a camera by his nan as a 17th birthday present.
He grew up on a farm near Stratford-upon-Avon and came to Wales to study at UWIC, where he grabbed as much time as he could in the college darkroom learning film photography.
Over the years since, he’s worked on a vast range of photography projects, from photographing at a castle to documenting people and places for clients including charities, a PR agency, arts organisations and the BBC – but he credits several years as the in-house photographer at Jumping Jack’s nightclub in Cardiff with really helping him to develop his ability to photograph people.
“Working in a nightclub you learn to deal with drunk people at three o’clock in the morning. That’s where I kind of got my love for working with people, and particularly Welsh people,” he says.
While his work is often compared to that of the American realist painter
Edward Hopper, he was largely oblivious to Hopper’s work as he developed his style.
However, he cites the spirit with which Lucian Freud approached his work as being influential.
“It’s the way he just looked and looked and looked,” he says.
“It was all about that constant observation – and, for me, photography is a similar thing.
“I go back to locations in different weather at different times and just try to really get a handle on their sense of place.”
The black and white cinema of the 1940s is another enduring fascination: “It’s so imaginative and so diverse and a lot of the storytelling is streets ahead of modern filmmaking,” he says.
He also gives a nod to the ceaseless creativity of musician Johnny Marr – he says he often approaches a photography project as if it is a music album and that’s evident in his new show, which has a coherent mood bringing the images into dialogue with each other.
While many people think they were taken with a film camera, the images in this collection were all taken with a Nikon D800 or D850 digital SLR.
They are luscious and moody, reflecting a depth of fascination that will expand this project beyond the exhibition – he has a list of other places he wants to visit.
“Across the coastline of Wales is a dizzying mix of natural beauty, coastal war defences, wastelands and towns and villages,” he says.
“Some are set up as resorts, others are sleepy, quaint places without the touchstones that we apply to places like Barry Island, Rhyl or Tenby.
“Like Paul Nash, I’m drawn to this surreal mix and its unique place in the British experience.
“In the 1930s Nash was captivated by the surreal placings of street furniture and natural objects like shells and rocks on the seafront at Swanage in Dorset and I too am pulled into this nostalgic confection which reminds me of growing up near Filey and Scarborough in the 1980s and 1990s.
“Seen from our family Mini in the early 1980s, the view of the derelict Filey Butlins holiday park, with its empty pools and faded Art Deco grandeur, left an indelible mark on my imagination, as did the excitement of the colours and sounds of local amusement arcades.”
Now, of course, his focus is on the special flavour of Wales’ coastal places – and perhaps the fact that he’s an outsider who has settled in Wales helps him to notice certain details and differences.
These images certainly make you stop and look with fresh eyes at the strange wonder of places we may have neglected to notice.
■ Wales At The Seaside runs from June 25 to July 30 at Gallery TEN, rear of 143 Donald Street Cardiff CF24 4TP. More details can be found at www.gallery-ten.co.uk