Photographers of Wales

Included in her album, held at the National Library of Wales, are photographs of family and friends, with an especially charming photograph of a young boy with his dog.

One of the best known Welsh Victorian photographers was John Thomas. Born in Cellan, Cardiganshire, he established his ‘Cambrian Gallery’ in Liverpool and travelled throughout Wales to take photographs.

People going about their everyday lives, the grime, grind and monotony of working on farms or in factories were to him significant enough to record for posterity, often enough without thought of monetary gain.

John Thomas was astute enough to capture these pulpit celebrities to sell as cartes de visite at fairs and markets alongside his portraits of the poets, writers and musicians ignored by most other photographers.

His photographs combine landscape, architecture and portrait photography to produce an overwhelming wealth of detail. His many travels around Wales produced a sympathetic yet clinical enough body of work containing many moral and social implications for those prepared to look.

D C Harries was a Welsh photographer who primarily operated from his studios in Ammanford and Llandeilo, South Wales from the beginning of the 20th century until his death in 1940.

His extensive collection of glass negatives donated to The National Library of Wales included 800 studio portraits of individuals and groups who served in the Armed Forces during the First World War.

Unfortunately, no corresponding details of the identity of these men were kept and to this day, the majority of them remain unknown.

During the first half of the 20th century, P B Abery originally from Kent, magnificently captured a way of life throughout mid Wales and the border counties. His wonderful collection of photographs illustrates the towns, villages, social life, people and landscape of the county.

For P B Abery photography was both work and his hobby. He was a patient man who would happily wait for hours for the correct light or cloud effect for the landscape shot he desired.

During the summer, P B Abery would make his living by taking photographs of the people who came to visit the countryside. The photographs would be displayed outside the shop the next morning, where crowds of people would gather to look for pictures of themselves.

Apart from photographing groups of visitors Abery was always quickly on the scene to photograph any newsworthy event, prints of which were sent off with great haste to the daily papers in London.


Before his death in 1948 Percy Benzie Abery selected 1580 of his glass negatives and gifted them to the National Library of Wales

Geoff Charles was a newspaper photographer who dedicated 50 years of his life to portraying Wales through the lens of his camera.

Between 1930s and 1970s his work recorded far more than events and personalities; piece by piece, photo by photo a vanished way of life is revealed: the postman delivering letters on horseback or the arrival of electricity in remote villages.

He took photographs which reflect all aspects of life including the protest that the residents of Tryweryn took to Liverpool in opposition to the drowning of the valley to supply water to Liverpool.

The village drowned, but not before Geoff Charles photographed many images that recorded a way of life and a community which disappeared simultaneously.

Whilst life in the Tryweryn valley was no different from that in many other parts of Wales, the threat to its existence ensured that every detail of life was meticulously recorded.

With 120,000 of his valuable negatives among the collections held at The National Library of Wales, his archive continues to this day to inspire and teach us about Wales through the years.