United Kingdom

Huw Alden Davies

www.huwdaviesphotography.com

Biography

Born and raised in West Wales, photographer Huw Alden Davies received a BA First Honours Degree in Photography at the West Wales School of Arts, and studied his Masters Degree in Documentary photography at Newport, University of Wales. His work, focused largely on his home village and its people, studying concepts such as sense of place and cultural identity, has been printed in a number of publications including CCQ magazine, Portfolio, Blown, British Journal of Photography; and has been exhibited in a range of exhibitions around the UK and Europe.

Davies’ photographs have been included in the archives of both the National Museum of Wales, and The National Portrait Gallery, London, and were recently selected to be shown in the last two Diffusion Festivals (Cardiff International Festival of Photography), included as part of the Valleys Re: Presented (Valleys Project), and Virtual Artist Residency ‘Looking for America’.

Currently a lecturer of photography at Carmarthen School of Art (West Wales), Davies continues to work as a documentary photographer and exhibiting artist, recently producing his first publication exploring the boundaries of written and visual narrative; while also working in collaboration with artist and photographer Daniel Staveley, on photographic initiative, iPigeon, investigating communicative visual concepts and theory through traditional and contemporary processes.

Focusing on his home village, an ex-mining community in the heart of the Gwendraeth Valley, West Wales, Huw Alden Davies’ project entitled Tumble is a personal interpretation and documentation of contemporary Welsh culture and his Sense of Place.
In recent years, many rural communities have seen significant change with great effect, inspiring Davies’ decision to photograph the village in what he refers to as its transitional state.

Having been raised in this close-knit community, Davies recognises that the village he calls home is changing rapidly. The traditional ways of rural society are being challenged by a modern homogeneous culture. He accepts that change is inevitable, even though, whilst he was growing up, the village seemed to be a permanent entity. Houses and buildings that had once been fundamental to community life were now being revealed as transient and only of a particular time - they were being replaced by those of a different time. Businesses were closing down or moving out, some of which had been a source of work in the community for over fifty years.

Change has implications, both positive and negative. The death of the original economy, based on mining, undeniably brought great hardship, but also forged further resilience of the community. However, during the latest recession this has been challenged yet again.

How much difference does a day make, or even a year? For most families, the smallest amount of time makes a world of difference, and as parents we are all too aware of the changes involved and how rapidly the family unit evolves from one stage to the next. Parenthood is an exceptional journey and although each experience is unique, for most parents, it can change their whole perspective on life, taking them in completely new, and often, unforeseen directions.

Inspired by ‘Fear and hoping’, Davies’ earlier documentary series focused on seven different family units based on the concept of the Nuclear Family, ‘Seven Point Seven’ is a new retrospective series of conceptual portraits that explore the dynamics within each family unit and their current lifestyle, seven years on from the original portraits.

Prince, Huw Alden Davies’ new series explores the lines of visual and written narrative, to create a detailed portrait that forms a dramatic, and often humorous study of the artist’s father, a by-product of a generation and his slanted views of the world.

Known as Prince, John Alden Davies has been recognised by this namesake for most of his life. By his friends, his family, and by all that have met him, and although, to him this was simply a name, to a boy (the artist) with little knowledge or care in the world, this was colossal. To him, his father was royalty, a hero, like Prince Adam of Eternia (except without a ‘Battle Cat’, or a sword).

In an attempt to reconnect with this childhood notion, Davies has recorded the essence of a man and his eccentricities through photographic and illustrative story telling, creating a detailed portrait, while exploring the physiological and cultural elements that inform the image that should have once been his role model.