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The Welsh valleys as you've never seen them before

Dan Wood Dan's daughter Megan, aged four at the time, is photographed overlooking the Bwlch mountainDan Wood
Photographer Dan Wood's daughter Megan, aged four, overlooking the Bwlch mountain in Rhondda Cynon Taf

Dan Wood has fond childhood memories of visiting the Rhondda valley in south Wales with his mum.

"Every Saturday my mother would throw me in the car and we’d go up over the Bwlch mountain and visit about six different people’s houses - aunties, nieces," he said.

"I’d be sitting in the car staring out at the landscape with all these questions about the place... it just felt like another world."

It was these early memories which drew Dan back to the Rhondda as a photographer many years later, with his two young children in tow.

Dan Wood Burnt-out bin over the Bwlch mountainDan Wood
Dan's photograph of a burnt-out bin overlooking the Bwlch mountain features in a new exhibition at Cardiff museum

"My parents are from the Rhondda so there was this connection," said Dan, 49, from Bridgend.

"I spent two-and-a-half years up there documenting the landscape and the people... I was up there every other day."

Dan's work now forms part of a special exhibition at the National Museum Cardiff, exploring how the valleys were transformed by the explosion of industry and its subsequent decline.

More than 200 pieces of art are on display - including paintings, photography, film and applied art.

Bruce Davidson Welsh Miners, 1965Bruce Davidson
Photographer Bruce Davidson visited the south Wales valleys in 1965. He took this picture, of a bride and groom on their wedding day, in Ebbw Vale

The exhibition begins pre-industry, when the south Wales valleys were sparsely populated.

During the industrial revolution of 1760-1840, the large scale exploitation of iron and coal began to transform the landscape.

Thomas Hornor Rolling MillsThomas Hornor
Cyfartha Ironworks, Merthyr Tydfil, painted in 1819 during the industrial revolution

As industry boomed, previously rural areas became thriving communities.

The Rhondda's population grew from 900 in 1830 to more than 100,000 by 1900.

Esther Grainger Portrait of a miner's wifeEsther Grainger
This portrait of a miner's wife, dated to the 1930s, was painted by a female artist called Esther Grainger
George Poole Welsh Miners Morning ShiftGeorge Poole
Welsh miners on the morning shift, painted around 1950
Ernest Zobole People and Ystrad RhonddaErnest Zobole
Artist Ernest Zobole was born and bred in the Rhondda Valley, which inspired this painting of people in the village of Ystrad, Rhondda, in 1960

When a programme of coal mining closures came in the 1980s and 1990s, thousands of Welsh miners lost their jobs.

The exhibition's curator, Dr Bronwwen Colquhoun, said the valleys communities she worked with were keen to make the exhibition about more than the area's industrial past.

"We wanted the exhibition to be really positive about the valleys, the area and the landscape," said Dr Colquhoun.

Megan Winstone A photograph of a woman in a fish and chip shop in AbercynonMegan Winstone
Megan Winstone's photograph 'Lily of the Valley', included in the exhibition, taken in Abercynon, Rhondda Cynon Taf, in 2019

"We spoke with the communities who we were working with to ask them what they would want to see and how they would want to be represented.

"They didn’t want that nostalgic take on the valleys... they wanted to look at the broader, more diverse landscape.

"We’ve tried to curate the show in a way where you take more from it than just the history of industry in the area."

The Valleys exhibition is free to enter and is on show at the National Museum Cardiff until 3 November, 2024.