1990s
As I had left my national newspaper work behind, having more time to work on long term commissions, allowed me to work on a larger format camera. This was because of quality for exhibition prints. The camera was a 6x9cm Fuji with a fixed 65mm wide angle lens. It used 120 roll film, eight shots per film. A hand-held light meter was used and a lot of the time I used fill-in flash. It was all a hand full, as you can imagine, though the quality of the negatives were gorgeous. As it was a range finder camera, you could actually see the subject as I pressed the shutter.
The 1990s was a strange period to document, especially in the South Wales valleys. The pits had all but closed and people were looking for a new identity. Former miners who had become redundant from the colliery, were now, in some cases working with women for the first time in factories. Some miners even became stay at home dads, whilst their wives were now taking on the role as bread winners.
During this period, I feel that photographing the valleys were no longer interesting. It's a period of time when it was easy to over-look this period in history. I found many interesting stories to follow. 







​Warning : all photographs are strictly copyright Roger Tiley. Illegal use without permission can be tracked by an ID number. An invoice will be issued.