PICTURE POST IN TIGER BAY, 1950

Who is British? What is the nature of British society? How are immigrants and minorities in a multi-ethnic society to be portrayed? What sense can we make today of the ways in which the past is represented?
This is an exhibition about Cardiff in the mid-20th century — about a community called “Tiger Bay” and its relation to the rest of Cardiff and to the larger British society. It is also an exhibition about documentary humanist photography — about ways of seeing racial and cultural difference. Although the images were taken more than fifty years ago, the issues they address have contemporary resonance.

The photographs are by Bert Hardy, the famed Picture Post photographer whose images were seen by millions in the 1940s and 50s. Bert Hardy’s images are both powerful and tender, brilliant and empathetic. Although he often dealt with serious topics — poverty, war, racism, Belsen — his photographs are always concerned with the human side of the story. The empathetic photographs he took in poor working class communities in London, Glasgow, Liverpool and Cardiff are some of his best. This exhibition it accompanies, features photographs taken in Cardiff in 1950 and 1954 — mostly for “Down the Bay”, a photo-essay published in Picture Post on 22nd April 1950.

In addition to photographs by Bert Hardy, the exhibition also includes the essay and captions written for the “Down the Bay” story by Bert Hardy’s colleague and friend, A. L. (Bert) Lloyd. The two Berts worked together on this story and many others: Lloyd engaged the subjects in conversation and Hardy photographed them. Nonetheless, one might ask: Do Hardy’s photographs and the Picture Post text say the same things? Do they convey the same meanings?

For generations, people in “Tiger Bay” have objected to how they have been represented by photographers, writers, journalists, social scientists and others. But they like Bert Hardy’s photographs of themselves and their community. Why is this so? What sort of documentary practice is this that local people find so alluring? We would like to thank all those people who helped to make this exhibition possible – initially in 2001. We gratefully acknowledge financial assistance from the “Arts for All” programme of the Arts Council of Wales and from the Home Office’s “Connecting Communities” programme. We are also grateful to all the staff members at Hulton Getty who assisted us — especially Brian Doherty who did a brilliant job printing the photographs from fifty-year-old negatives. Finally, we thank the University of Glamorgan for the part-timesecondment of Glenn Jordan to Butetown History & Arts Centre.

For further information, reservations for the opening or more photos please contact us at:

Butetown History & Arts Centre
5 Dock Chambers
Bute Street
Cardiff Bay
Cardiff

(2 minutes walk from the Waterfront)

Tues to Fri 10am – 5pm
Sat and Sun and Bank Holidays 11am – 4.30pm

029 20 256 757
E-mail: info@bhac.org
www.bhac.org