Dafydd Jones Exhibition in a Box

In 2015 Dafydd Jones selected and printed what he considered to be the definitive retrospective over-view of his works. Choosing 62 pictures, from England and America, he produced a special limited edition set entitled Exhibition in a Box.

As Dafydd Jones has explained:

"October 2015: 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 couldn'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. This isn't a definitive 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 62 prints."

Dafydd Jones

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Dafydd Jones Exhibition in a Box

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