Robert Greetham
My work over time culminated in 2021 with a self-published book Rites and Traces. This comprised two bodies of work drawn from images made over the past four decades since I first studied art and photography at Aberystwyth University in 1978. Over time the images reflect different preoccupations; from sculpture, architecture and the urban environment to the religious processions of Semana Santa in Spain. However, many of the underlying themes remain the same. My first love in art was the painting of the Italian Renaissance and by extension its iconography, whether religious or classical; sacred or profane. It was not so much the historical or doctrinal meaning that interested me but rather how these strange, mysterious emanations from the past still had the power to resonate so strongly in the present day. And of course they were often beautiful, hauntingly so. Photographs have an almost unique capacity for encapsulating time and place and there is something inherently ambiguous and enigmatic about photographs themselves that seem to mirror the subject matter depicted. Aside from the continuity of the past within the present I also have a fascination with the found cultural object; be it a wayside madonna, a damaged and vandalised statue or traces of long forgotten graffiti and the suggestion of transience, decay and the fleeting gesture. Resilience and entropy walking hand in hand.
If a sense of tradition and the past informs much of Traces then it does so again in Rites albeit from a different perspective. Many years ago I came across Cristina Garcia Rodero’s book Espana Oculta, where she depicted the customs, religious festivals and fiestas of Spain. They conveyed something altogether deeper and more mysterious than is usually associated with life in the latter part of the twentieth century. With these images in mind I have returned to Spain over a period of twenty years to photograph Semana Santa or Holy Week celebrated every Easter. In cities such as Seville and Malaga thousands of people take part in highly formalised processions which are as opulent as they are moving, demonstrating the continuity of the past within the present and the enduring power of ritual, tradition and faith.
Lived Experience
Robert Greetham was born in Cardiff in 1957. He studied, and subsequently taught, at Aberystwyth University School of Art and is a former Director of Ffotogallery, Cardiff. He has received several awards from the Arts Council of Wales and his work is represented in numerous private and public collections including Aberystwyth University School of Art Museum and Galleries and the National Library of Wales.
