This work explores the rural community that moulded my own sense of place; it investigates issues of identity, with particular attention being paid to the relationship between people and place. Locality and community are also important themes, with questions being asked about the survival of a local, rural economy in a world of global transactions.
Our family farm lay in the shadow of, Mynydd Troed, Foot Mountain in English, its distinctive shape was carved out in the last Ice Age, as was the lake in the valley bellow. The area, a popular tourist destination, is nestled in the midst of the Brecon Beacons National Park. The experience of eking out a living in this striking but demanding landscape is what shaped our lives. Despite this, these pictures do not aim to create a predictable, imagined geography. The images are not the stereotypical faces, of weather worn farmers, but an intimate portrait of people and places that are familiar to me.
It is this intimacy that provides my sense of belonging to the local community.
However, this is not an enclosed community, with a fixed identity. To ally locality with community, can be misleading, as there is never just one community with a single sense of identity. These farmers have many different social connections, both local, national and international. This place, like any other, is as multifaceted as its people, a place of complex networks of social relations. These images are an articulation of those relations, a dialogue between photographer and subject and as such an exploration of self.
An important part of the work focuses on children, young people and women that support them. This is not merely a nostalgic trip into childhood experience, but rather an interest in the next generation, and how well equipped they are to face the challenges of farming in the 21st century.
