Gwreiddiau 004
Mary Watler-Thomas || Photographer
Introduce yourself…
Hello! My name is Mary and I’m a commercial & wedding photographer based in Newport.
What is your hometown to you? What was your experience growing up there?
So my hometown is Carmarthen in West Wales. It was a good town to grow up in, it's a small town in Wales with a pretty diverse population. People from all over the world moving there to work in the hospital.
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But what I didn’t realise when I was young was that there was always a distinct division with Welsh and English speakers, especially in schools. I went to QE High the ‘English’ school, and then there was the Welsh school Bro Myrddin.
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Safe to say I did not enjoy secondary school at all. I was severely bullied from Year 8, and ended up having to be homeschooled by Year 10. I’m not sure why the bullying was so severe, it might have been because of the size of the school. In 2006 the two secondary schools merged to create a ‘mega school’. I think there were over 2000 students.
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After homeschooling I went on to studying National Diploma Art & Design in Llanelli college, and after that, I went back to Jobs Well College in Carmarthen. The most incredible place.
How has Carmarthen influenced or shaped you and what you do, if it has?
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I think the Carmarthen I knew during my teenage years wasn’t the best. It was closed-minded, very judgemental and creativity was seen as a hobby rather than a career.
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I believe my creative journey started in Llanelli when I focused on just the creative arts. But then I went on to do an access course (similar to a foundation course)in Jobs Well Art College and my perspective of Carmarthen really did change. It was honestly like a secret world, and that’s where I discovered the vast variety of creatives living in West Wales. The lectures there were incredible and it opened my eyes to a whole new community.
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What do you know about your hometown’s artistic history, does it resonate with you?
I don’t really know much about the artistic history of Carmarthen to be honest, but I do love how much of the alternative culture there is. Alternative living, some would call it ‘hippy’ culture or new age travellers. There’s quite a few alternative communities living around Carmarthenshire. Eco communes, travellers, and so much artistic expression.
Is there a photo or project you’ve created you feel is linked to your roots?
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In university, my final project was all about looking at my childhood home as an alternative self-portrait. Sophie Calle was my main inspiration for all my work in third year, as well as Richard Long.
When I was 17 I became homeless. I left my family home, and was ’no fixed abode’. I sofa surfed for 3 months, before getting emergency housing from the council. I then was put into a council flat 6 months later. During this time, home was something that wasn’t a constant. By the age of 22 I had moved 16 times, and I wanted to make a piece of work that connected me back to where I had my strongest roots, my childhood home ‘Eirianell’. It turned into a very cathartic experience.
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Is there something you see or feel from your hometown that you look for when working on projects about other subjects?
I would say community. Being that most of my work now is quite commercial, what has drawn me to photography is documenting people, and creating a sort of community. I love documenting celebration of all different cultures, and it makes sense why I now document Weddings!
What about Carmarthen would you want to document in a project for the world to see?
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This is a really tough question, but I think it would be all the alternative-living communities around Carmarthen. In the 70s there was a real influx of people moving to Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire to live more off the land, and free, there’s a big community of travellers too. This has really shaped the music culture in West Wales. Tipi Valley is one of those places. Founded in 1976, it felt like a very private community, but I would love to meet some of the people.
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But on the contrasting side is the population I grew up with in secondary school, quite close-minded, and very traditional lines of work. I think the comparison would be quite interesting.
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Website: https://www.marywthomas.com || Instagram: @_marywt
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By Hannah Nicholson-Tottle