Tom Mathias Photographs
This remarkable collection of photographs represents the work of two exceptionally gifted photographers from different eras and very different backgrounds.
The original photographs were taken by Tom Mathias, a self-taught photographer, at the turn of the 20th Century. Using simple equipment, Tom Mathias recorded the daily life around the Cilgerran district of Dyfed, west Wales.
Following Mathias's death in 1940 all his negatives were dumped in an outhouse, where they lay, forgotten, for more than thirty years.
James Maxwell Davies, a professional photographer living in the area, discovered them in the 1970s. The glass negatives were in a very poor condition. Many were broken and damaged beyond repair. Most of the reminder were very badly degraded, meaning a slow and painstaking process to print what images could be saved. Enough had survived however for Maxwell Davies to appreciate the importance of what he had found and set about the task of conserving and restoring the photographs.
It is thanks to these efforts that Tom Mathias's remarkable photographs have been saved for posterity.
Click on the thumbnails below for more infomration.
