Press Releases

 Robert Haines: Once Upon a Time in Wales

St. Fagans: National History Museum, Oriel 1 Gallery Talk and Book Signing: 3pm, 12 July 2008 Exhibition: Saturday 12 July 2008 - December 2008 Admission Free Opening hours: St. Fagans is open daily, 10am-5pm

Press Release 8 July 2008

From July to December 2008, St. Fagans: National History Museum in Cardiff will be staging an exhibition by renowned Welsh photographer Robert Haines. Robert Haines will also be talking about his photographs at St. Fagans at 3pm, 12 July, 2008.

In the early 1970s, Robert Haines returned to his roots to document the unique characters that inhabited his birthplace of Heolgerrig and nearby Merthyr Tydfil in Wales. Once Upon a Time in Wales offers a fascinating glimpse of a vanished past.

Heolgerrig was a very close-knit community with Welsh the first language. It was a mining community where most of the men worked underground and life seemed to revolve around the pub and the chapel. Merthyr Tydfil, once the Iron Capital of the world, had a justifiable reputation as tough with characters such as hard man, Melvin Webber, who died after being blasted by a shotgun.

The early Seventies were a time of flux and, looking at these powerful photographs now, many of the extraordinary characters featured seem to have drifted in from a previous century. Haines photographed the local people with enthusiasm and energy. Some he knew well, others were complete strangers. Some spent their days in the pub, others worked underground, and living conditions were often very poor. The photographs speak to us today of a world very different to our own.

Haines has accompanied his affectionately shot photographs with memories, stories and local legends about each subject, which are as amusing and poignant as the images themselves.

Robert Haines will be at St. Fagans: National History Museum at 3pm, 12 July to talk about his work and the exhibition and to sign copies of his book that accompanies this exhibition. Refreshments will be served. The exhibition will continue at St. Fagans until December 2008

‘Once Upon a time in Wales by Robert Haines is a Light House touring exhibition.'

Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales operates seven national museums across Wales. These are National Museum Cardiff, St Fagans: National History Museum, National Roman Legion Museum, Caerleon, Big Pit: National Coal Museum, Blaenafon, National Waterfront Museum, Swansea, National Wool Museum, Drefach and the National Slate Museum, Llanberis. ENDS

PUBLICATION: Robert Haines's fully-illustrated book Once Upon a Time in Wales published by Dewi Lewis Publishing is available in the Museum's shop. Priced £14.99.

NOTES TO EDITORS: For press information and high resolution photographs please contact: Iwan Llwyd, Communications Officer. Call: 029 2057 3486 / 07920027054 Email: iwan.llwyd@museumwales.ac.uk Visit: www.museumwales.ac.uk • Entry to St. Fagans: National History Museum is free, thanks to the support of the Welsh Assembly Government.

ARTISTS' BIOGRAPHIES: Robert Haines was born in March of 1952 in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, and grew up in Heolgerrig, a small village on the outskirts of the town. He holds a bachelor's degree in Photographic Arts from the University of Westminster in London and has pursued a career in film and editorial photography. He has previously worked as a film cameraman, photojournalist and as a partner in a news agency. Robert was based in Wales until 2004 and now resides in Malvern with his partner Dorothy. He has a son, Ollie. In 2006 he embarked on a new career in artistic photography He is a member of the French based Charlet Photographies and is represented by Dominic Charlet in Paris.