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Stories, memories and pictures

"Almost all families possess some form of family album. Whether it's a worned shoebox of thumbed images...a fake leather album of gaudy coloured pictures...or a few chosen favourites in a browning old envelope - this is my family...grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins...eternally immortalised in photographic emulsion.

These pictures are emotive of a time and place; images that comment on our personal histories... they tell their own stories.

My maternal grandmother...here, during the war - so young, so vibrant with life shining in her eyes...and my father's Aunt Vera...I can remember her now, she was such a stylish woman in her furs and, when we'd visit, it all would be all gold chocolates with our tea with willow patterned cups.

My great grandfather...Tadcu Parc Gwyn as my mother would call him, failing to keep up with the runners at Coed y Brain Chapel races... and my paternal grandmother, Maud... so splendidly dressed in full Welsh costume.

Yet amongst these treasured memories...amidst the depictions of childhoods, parties, birthdays and holidays, there's a collection of nameless faces; photographs of strangers...

Talygarn anti-pessimists!... anti-pessimists?...who were they?...and why were they optimists?

This stern looking old gentlemen, rigidly posed...was life really so different then?

This old fellow...I'm told his name was Twm Nansi, a travelling minister. He'd call with the family, and if his sermon was good he'd be fed... if it wasn't, he'd go hungry.

...And these two... so miserable in their black and white world - they should have hooked up with the Talygarn anti-pessimists!

And as I include my picture in the album, I'm continuing a tradition...in years to come my children and my children's children can look and stare and imagine what my story was."

Please tell us about yourself.
I have just recently moved to Carmarthen and I've bought my first washing machine. I work for the Wales Screen Commission in assisting film companies with locations and facilities. I take photographs in my spare time and I hope that one day soon I will win the lottery - I hope to buy a goldfish if this happens.

What's your story about?
My story is about my family's pictures. I chose to tell this story due to the fact that my initial idea - about a number of prominent Hollywood actors in compromising positions - was rejected immediately.
Choosing a story was very difficult - I had so many ideas but really couldn't decide on an actual story. In the end, a collection of family photographs made the decision for me. Once I'd decided what pictures to use I really didn't have a story to tell, my story was really a comment about family pictures and not a story at all. In my garbled confused way I tried to put over my idea to the group. After finishing my party piece twelve blank expressions stared back at me - I clearly had to work on this. Diligently I scribbled away that evening and by the next morning I had a script!

What was the experience of making your digital story like?
I thoroughly enjoyed my time making the story. It was a fantastic experience to be thrown together with a great group of people from so many varying backgrounds. I found that we all gelled together quickly and creating our stories became a group event rather than singular experiences.