Nia Clement

Images of the Tywi Valley, 1985 – 1990

August 2009

Nia Clement lives and works in Llangadog. She moved to Llangadog from Cardiff in 1985 to try and find a new way to record contemporary Welsh life. “I discovered a warm, traditional community, full of life and spirit, which welcomed me and my rather strange notions of what made for interesting subject matter”. Basing herself in Llangadog and Llandeilo, she came across a wealth of people and places around which to build up a body of work, from farmers and their families to social activities in the villages and towns.

This collection of photographs were all taken in the Tywi Valley in Carmarthenshire, an area known to generations of schoolchildren as the Milky Way. It's climate and lush pastures made it the most important dairying region in Wales. But while Nia embarked on documenting the economic and social life of this corner of rural Wales, things began to change rapidly, and today, some aspects are virtually unrecognisable. None of the farms documented in the work survives intact, they have either been split up into smaller holdings and sold, or have had to radically change their way of making a livelihood.

It seems an appropriate time, almost 25 years later, to look back on this rapidly disappearing way of life. The work was originally exhibited under the title Y Llwybr Llaethog - The Milky Way, in 1992. Several of the images were purchased by The University of Wales Collection, and by South Glamorgan County Council, as well as being included in the British Journal of Photography Annual and in exhibitions at Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, and Ffotogallery, Cardiff."

Weekends throughout August 10am-6pm
The Last Gallery, Dyrfal Road, Llangadog 01550 777933