Living in Wales

Wales is a country and society changing perhaps more than most. Political devolution, a new economy, the resurgence of the Welsh language are among several factors which authors, artists, historians and social commentators are currently addressing. Magnum photographer David Hurn adds his particular record of change in a more oblique -- though nonetheless telling - way than most. Here are duotone portraits of a hundred of the people who shape contemporary Wales, who have, in Hurn''s words ''enriched my life and that of Wales''. Living in Wales is an album of famous figures and distinguished practitioners from the fields of science, business, the arts, sport, the law, health, media, politics and religion, from Jan Morris, Antony Freud and John Harvey Jones to Bernard Knight, Dafydd Wigley and Colin Jackson. In between are photographs of the ''ordinary'' people who also ''enrich the life of Wales'': ice cream makers, publicans, chimney sweeps and waitresses. The subject of each portrait answers the same short set of questions, and in doing so makes this book a multifaceted portrait of Wales itself.
All the photographs are shot in Hurn''s characteristic style, the lens lingering on the physicality of the person but also diverted by a telling prop into the possibilities of narrative. If Wales is the unseen subject of this collection, the printed images show a photographer in inspirational form with the individuals who make up the country.

Living in Wales is an album of one hundred and one duotone portraits of people who, in the words of David Hurn "have enriched my life and that of Wales." It is a roster of the famous and distinguished in the fields of science, business, the arts, sport, the law, health, media, politics and religion.

Writer Jan Morris rubs shoulders with Cabinet Minister Peter Hain; Tyrone O''Sullivan of Tower Colliery View with industrialist John Harvey-Jones; harpist Catrin Finch faces champion cyclist Nicole Cooke; Bryn Terfel meets Colin Jackson.

In between are photographs of others, who, in less public ways, make an immense contribution to the fabric of Wales: ice-cream makers, publicans, chimney sweeps, restaurateurs. And, on a more personal note, there are residents of David''s home village of Tintern, and people whom he has met on his travels around the country. Beautifully composed, and shot with David''s characteristic flair for detail, the photographs linger on the physicality of the person, a telling prop pushing the image towards the possibility of narrative. Here is a photographer on inspirational form.

David Hurn was born in England in 1934 of Welsh parentage. It was as a freelancer that he gained an international reputation for his reportage of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. He later gave up current-affairs coverage for a more personal perspective on photography. He became a member of the prestigious Magnum Agency in 1967, and during the seventies established the acclaimed School of Documentary Photography at Newport, Wales. Since leaving there he has photographed and taught around the world.