the wonderous thing about hashtags on Instagram is when you throw one up there, you GET TO sit back and observe all manner of fun and serious creativity emerge in equal measure!
With over 3300 images tagged with #portraitcymru on Instagram alone since 2018, Ffoton thought it was about time to reinvigorate the enthusiasm around creative portraiture in Wales - and continue building a publicly accessible collection of #portraitcymru’s ‘Faces of a Nation’.
Between now (Autumn 2023) and New Year’s Day 1 January 2024, we’re inviting photographers throughout Wales to share their own creative portraits made in Wales on Instagram, Threads and X (formerly Twitter) and tag them with #portraitcymru
A new online gallery of selected images will be updated here on ffoton.wales weekly through December and the first week of January – after which, we aim to release a new Zine to mark #portraitcymru 2023
There’s more!
From 1 January - 31 August 2024 we’re reviving #urbanwales (currently tagged to over 9000 images on Instagram) to seek out new creative interpretations of street photography across Wales, with another new online gallery sharing monthly selections here on the website, leading to a new #urbanwales 2024 Zine which will accompany an exhibition of the images during The EYE International Photography Festival in October 2024.
Join in! It’s free - just tag the best of your portrait images between now and New Year’s Day with #portraitcymru – and then head out into the fresh air to capture and tag creative street photography for #urbanwales by the end of August.
The #portraitcymru 2018 and #urbanwales 2017 zines published by Ffoton Wales.
If you’d like to get some inspiration from seeing what went before – or missed out on the #portraitcymru 2018 zine (and the #urbanwales 2017 zine a year earlier) – very limited remaining copies are available as a 2-zine set for just £10 (P&P included) via the order button below or from the Offline Journal online store.
#portraitcymru 2018 is packed with creative portraiture by 27 photographers.
A5-size with 40 pages in full colour.
#urbanwales 2017 is equally packed with creative street photography by 21 photographers.
137 x 210mm with 46 pages with gatefold cover.
All sales will go towards supporting Ffoton's annual website hosting fees.
This offer is available while limited zine stocks last. UK mainland only.
#portraitcymru activities back in 2018
Ffoton kicked off 2018 by creating the #portraitcymru tag on Instagram back in January to encourage photographers in Wales to share their creative portraiture - fun and serious - whilst also allowing them to easily discover and gain inspiration from work by others.
As of Autumn 2023, over 3300 images have been tagged with #portraitcymru and the Instagram feed is still growing!
As great believers of getting creative photography off hard drives and onto public walls, we got talking to a few good people to explore exhibition opportunities around showing a wide selection of work submitted on the Instagram feed.
The result?
We were excited to collaborate with the EYE International Photography Festival and fine exhibition team at Aberystwyth Arts Centre to curate a special #portraitcymru exhibition wall at the EYE Festival event 5-7 October 2018 and it ran through to 16 October that year.
It's a bit special. Really.
And in Cardiff we teamed up again with the top team at The Little Man Coffee Co. in their original city centre site and also their new Garage space on Tudor Lane to show additional #portraitcymru work. Visitors had the opportunity to frazzle their brains with great coffee and creative photography through the whole month of October 2018!
Poster for the Cardiff show, image by Anna Jones /
@cobsinmyhair.documentary
The #portraitcymru zine, cover by @manrayboy1
Limited Edition Zine
Recognising not everyone may have the opportunity to visit and view the Aberystwyth and/or Cardiff exhibitions, we designed a new zine with selected work included over its 40 tasty pages.
The zine was available over the counter at Little Man Coffee in Cardiff during the exhibition
DOUBLE ZINE GOODNESS
Our trip to The EYE Festival had us bring along not one but two new photography Zines!
It was under wraps for the best part of a year but the second publication was something very special and a Ffoton collaboration with the very fine Café Royal Books to show the work of the late, great Peter Jones!
It's not just about us...
We had been busy but we knew a few others had been up to no good with their own photography zines! So we encouraged everyone who had created a small run or even just a one-off or book dummy for a project in-progress to bring them along to show off and discuss!
#TAGS NEVER DIE!
As with our #urbanwales tag on Instagram in 2017, we were blown away by the range of work posted and tagged with #portraitcymru and we thought it would be a real shame to exclude the creative portraits still being posted by enthusiasts and professionals alike.
So, in addition to our two exhibitions in Aberystwyth and Cardiff we hosted a third right here on www.ffoton.wales. This online gallery appeared through 1 - 31 October 2018 and featured a selection of images newly posted on the #portraitcymru Instagram feed that got our creative juices flowing.
Our #portraitcymru exhibitions
From Wednesday 12 September 2018 we began announcing the photographers taking part in our two venue-based exhibitions: starting with The EYE Festival in Aberystwyth; then The Little Man Coffee Co. in Cardiff; and finally in our Online gallery from 1 October 218.
View more on each show by clicking on the image thumbnail links below:
EYE Festival
Info on our exhibition at The EYE International Photography Festival 2018
Little Man Coffee
Info on our exhibitions at The Little Man Coffee Co.’s two Cardiff city centre sites
Online
Gallery of selected #portraitcymru images added on Instagram in October 2018
Supported in 2018 by
