An exploration of the towns and landscapes of the south Wales valleys through a collection of photographs. The images themselves are more closely related to abstract painting than to the convention of traditional photography and the images depict the vibrant beauty found in the clutter of street corners, sheds and garages, industrial debris, houses and townscapes.

Casgliad o ffotograffau sy'n portreadu trefi a tirluniau cymoedd de Cymru. Mae'r delweddau eu hunain yn perthyn i dechneg darlunio haniaethol yn hytrach na ffotograffiaeth confensiynol - maent yn arddangos y prydferthwch lliwgar a welir yn y pethau cyffredin; cornel stryd, siediau, olion diwydiannol, tai ac ymarweddiad y trefi.

‘Look closer. You find an enchantment, an abdication of metropolitan fret and status-struggle in favour of a leisurely logging of elements; a landcape that is out of time, unresolved. In transition. Memorials of discontinued industries. New money spent on new things. Hillsides learning to disguise their wounds.’ (Iain Sinclair)

Sinclair’s insightful introduction gives the reader a vivid preface to this striking collection of Stokes’s photographs of the south Wales valleys, a deeply personal portrait of its communities, taken over a five year period.

The warmth and empathy which imbue these images are a reflection of Stokes’s own connection with the area, and, perhaps the circumstances in which he came to settle here – poignantly recounted in the final few pages of the book. Although his father was raised in Bridgend and his mother in Baglan and Merthyr Tydfil (before they met in Gloucester), Stokes visited the area only occasionally, spending most of his adult life in London working ‘in the posh end of contemporary art’, until his house fell down in 1988. Underinsured with mounting debts, he writes: ‘Three years later, I left it with equity so small that it would contribute only to the purchase of a property in the cheapest place in the United Kingdom: The Valleys . . . it took redundancy and a bulging mortgage to shock me into a questioning quake – meltdown – and an eventual hwyl of delight. I saw the potential in a fresh start; I exchanged London for Ogmore Vale, admin for practice . . . ’

It is this unsentimental and honest approach which underpins the vitality of his photographs, and paints such a detailed and multilayered account of the people from the valleys, in images which have no people in them. It is the things which people have created and built, changed, spoiled and improved which imply their personalities and their lives, their past and their present.

Far from the gloomy grey stereotypes, there is a rush of vibrant colour here; the scarlet petunias in hanging baskets outside and end of terrace house, Maerdy; brightly painted garages in Cwmavon and Maesteg; a splash of blue on the pebble-dash of a Salvation Army building; the patina of rust on corrugated roofs and railings; a line of red laundry outside an orange wall looped up like prayer flags; a dusky pink wall highlighting the pastel shades of larches in the distance. There is also a strong sense of irony, humour and pathos – a broken pipe and a litter bin under the sign for Ferndale cemetery; the sign marked ‘Fire Point ’ on a lamp post in front of the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses; the dereliction of Pandora’s Box; ‘The Con Club’ sign on a bare stone building; the ruined roof of a pale pink building once the home of ‘Panache Upholstery Ltd ‘ – a young tree sprouting its vital leaf shoots outside.

In terraced residential areas, Stokes’s images convey an immense sense of pride taken in the adornment of houses, particularly through their attention to detail: the tiny Buddha in a front window in Blaenrhondda; a pair of lion statues on a threshold in Ystrad; porcelain heads, cherubs and elaborate statues, matching dried-flower displays and blue plant pots on display in people’s front-room windows, framed by net drapes and blinds – all of these expressions of strong, independent and creative spirit.

Subtle, complex and sensitive, this should be a treasured visual documentary of a place Stokes describes as a ‘profoundly important place in Wales – the power house of the Industrial Revolution.’ He continues: ‘Only notions of conventional good taste, or coastal prejudice, are capable of obscuring the wonder of The Valleys.’ He wants the truth in its entirety. In this, he succeeds.

Jane MacNamee

It is possible to use this review for promotional purposes, but the following acknowledgment should be included: A review from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Welsh Books Council.

Gellir defnyddio'r adolygiad hwn at bwrpas hybu, ond gofynnir i chi gynnwys y gydnabyddiaeth ganlynol: Adolygiad oddi ar www.gwales.com, trwy ganiatâd Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru.