Dafydd Jones

Sometimes the party just goes on too long.. This is my third box of prints. I keep being surprised by the pictures I find amongst my negatives from England in the Eighties. They look best if displayed together. After doing these pictures I worked in the U.S. and travelled around Europe photographing social events for several years. I didn’t ever see anyone falling asleep at a party anywhere else. Some perhaps are passed-out rather than sleeping. There is something more peaceful about just sleeping at a party- - These were the pictures I really liked. .It takes confidence to go to sleep at a party but seen together the picturesgive an impression of a of a society in decline. The box contains 20 signed 10 x 8 silver gelatin prints on fibre paper. The edition size is 10 with 3 A/P boxes.

February 2019 Burning Boats. 1981-1987 At Oxford an annual rowing competition between the colleges takes place over a week every summer known as Eights week. Traditionally the winning team ( who would have spent months training for these races ) would have a celebratory dinner.Ater the dinner a boat would be set alight and the rowers would jump over the flames. I photographed the event several times in the eighties. The first time at Oriel college Oxford in 1981. I heard the same thing happened in Cambridge after the May Bumps rowing competition.. - So I photographed there too. . The Cambridge Burning boat was just as reckless and dangerous as in Oxford with the difference that some women were taking part. In 2019 I looked at the films again and printed these pictures for a box of prints. Apart from the tribal drama of the scene I like the pictures for their abstract qualities.- With the embers blowing around with smoke and fire and parts of the picture disappearing. I'm told that nowadays for Health and Safety reasons the event the burning boat is roped off and no jumping takes place. Shown are all the prints that come in the Box. The edition size is 6 Each print is signed and stamped. The box contains 31 11 x 14 prints.One image from Oriel in 1984 is also available separately from the box in 2 more different sizes. Please enquire if interested.

In October 2015 I after 30 busy years I suddenly had some time on my hands. I missed the darkroom so partly did these for the pleasure of spending time printing again. In the eighties and nineties I’d be in the darkroom every day. Now I spend half my time sitting at a computer. The first obstacle to printing again was that I’d given away all my equipment. I found that one of the last community darkrooms in the country was near where I live. - I joined the Silverhill Darkroom in Hastings. Because it was 20 years since I’d last printed it took a while to get going. After drying and flattening I could n’t help seeing that my first 150 prints were not good enough. 3 weeks work was scrapped. I enjoyed printing though.- In a darkroom I work standing up moving between the enlarger and developing trays. I have music or the radio playing. I have a break from email etc as even looking at an iphone would fog the paper. I went back through my film pictures choosing the ones to print. The selection was entirely subjective. Some of the pictures were done before I was working professionally. Most were done originally while working freelance or for the Tatler and Vanity Fair. I wanted to revisit these old pictures and do a new edit. I mainly chose particular favorites but also some pictures had stayed in my head over the years. How I feel about the pictures goes up and down. Some of the pictures have never really been printed properly before. The Bloody Assizes drinks party picture for example I rejected at the time and didn't include in my final edit of Oxford dining clubs. It was taken at the first Oxford party I photographed.. When I came across the old print of it again 35 years later it stood out. So I decided to include. Some favorite pictures I printed and then rejected. A couple have never been shown on the internet or published. After finishing 50 prints I couldn’t stop and kept adding more making a total of 59 images. I printed 6 boxes in my favorite size 11 X 14 inches. So each print is from an edition of 6. Because the size of the box is about the size of a large photo book the box can sit amongst a photo book collection. Selecting the prints for the boxes I’ve wanted to guide the way my pictures are seen.- Someone can curate their own exhibition of my work and frame their choices in their homes or wherever. One of these boxes has been acquired by the Hyman collection of British Photography. Another by the Martin Parr Foundation. This isn’t a definative selection from that period as there are many more. - But these all stand out. They are old and new favourites that I've enjoyed printing. - Jan 2017: I decided to add 3 more pictures to the 6 boxes so the box will now contain ed 62 prints. June 2021. In 2021 I split box 6/6 and the prints are for sale individually from the James Hyman Gallery.

2016. I made this collection of smaller prints in my newly built darkroom in East Sussex Although I used to choose my work at the time it would be influenced by magazine requirements and often the interesting images would be overlooked. . I went through all my files of contact sheets from this period to do a new edit...I wanted to explore some themes from these pictures from early on in my career in more depth and print them with rich blacks. I really like the rough key line edges of these prints. A couple of pictures repeated in this collection work when the adjoining frames are seen too. I couldn’t do these pictures now- I’d feel too old.- But at the time I was only a few years older than the teenagers.. . I printed them in a box because the pictures work best if seen together.The Box contains 33 10 X 8 archival silver gelatin prints on fibre paper. Some of these prints are shown more than once from different angles. The edition size is 10. Each print is signed and stamped. I'll be showing an edited selection from the box for the first time from Nov 5 2019 at Bermondsey Project Space in London until 17 Nov. Private view on 13 November. A box has been acquired by the Thomas J. Watson Library. Metropolitan Museum. New York. Thanks to James and Claire Hyman this box is also held in his collection of British Photography, the Yale Museum of British Art and also the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

Box of prints 10 x 8 size. I photographed the Dangerous Sports club Surreal Ski Race in St. Moritz for 3 years in the early eighties. Although I used to choose my work at the time it would be influenced by magazine requirements and often the interesting images would be overlooked. . I went through all my files of contact sheets from this period to do a new edit.. I printed them in my darkroom as a collection because the pictures work best if seen together. The Box contains 10 X 8 archival silver gelatin prints on fibre paper.The box can sit amongst a photo book collection. Or someone can curate their own exhibition and frame their choices in their homes or wherever. I think the images work best if seen together. If framed the prints would look best in quite a generous mount. The edition size is 10. Each print is signed and stamped.

These one-off test strips were all sold along with a copy of my book Oxford: The Last Hurrah in Nov/ Dec 2020. £3,910 raised for the Trussell Trust. The Trussell Trust is a charity that supports a network of foodbanks in the U.K. to provide emergency food and support to people in crisis. Many Thanks to the buyers of these prints.

I spent the first U.K. lockdown in 2020 going through all my photographs from Cambridge choosing favourites to print. .Most were taken in the early hours when the light was beautiful and soft. I returned again last year to photograph the Magdalene Ball. The difference was that the college now has women students. -- Who led the way into the river.

Sensation Opening. Royal Academy of Art. London.16 September 1997. A selection of these pictures can be seen in a Cafe Royal publication of the same name. Darkroom prints available individually..

Prints made for the book England: The Last Hurrah. Published 2023

July 2019 I spent 3 months looking through my films from Oxford when I was photographing there between 1976-1988. -Deciding which ones to include in this box of prints. Some are favorites and some of the pictures have never been printed before. I originally thought I had 25 or so decent pictures from Oxford. Surprised to find quite so many. I made this set of 11 x 14 inch prints for the Bodleian Library in Oxford and it is now in their collection. It also formed the basis for my book published by ACC Art Books. Oxford: The Last Hurrah.

Prints from various parties in Oxford in 1980-1981.Then prints from the Piers Gaveston Ball, Park Lane Hotel. London 1983. All silver gelatin 10 x 8 size Printed March 2023

These are all prints from my New York Box of prints that was the basis for my book New York; High Life/ Low Life.published April 2024. this selection includes all the pictures including the outtakes that didn't make the final edit.