Aberystwyth Arts Centre hosts an exhibition of photographs by Bruce Cardwell - offering a visual homage to the world of the Welsh shepherd. He celebrates a lifestyle and culture which has remained largely unchanged over many centuries, but which now faces a variety of existential threats, such as changing Governmental agricultural funding priorities and the implications of climate change.
These communities are an important reservoir of Welsh language, traditional practices, and cultural values. They are represented in this exhibition by images of individuals, and photographic observation of activities which form the annual routine of shepherding.
Belfast born Bruce Cardwell has lived in Ceredigion since 1981, and has used his camera to celebrate his adopted home since then in a series of photographic books and touring exhibitions.
Having worked in farming and forestry, and pursued a career in landscape conservation as the National Trust Warden for Ceredigion, he has a love of rural life that is reflected in the collection of images that is presented in Calon Wlan.
Always respectful of those who trust him to portray them to a wider public, he maintains:
“I don't take people's photographs, they give them to me...”
All images © Bruce Cardwell
Gallery/Oriel 2 opening hours: 10am - 8pm
Aberystwyth Arts Centre / Canolfan y Celfyddydau Aberystwyth
University Campus
Aberystwyth
SY23 3DE
Tel / Ffôn 01970 621 903