Greetings and welcome. Glad you've dropped by for a browse. In this online gallery, my first attempt at building a website using free webspace, you will view examples of my camera work in a very basic way.  I'm an American freelance photographer from Minnesota and started taking photographs there in the 1960's, but have  been living and photographing in south Wales since the 1970's. My preferred subject is diverse humanity in urban settings, especially people and places in the two Welsh cities I'm familiar with, Newport and Cardiff. I started putting together an archive in the mid -1970's of Cardiff's docklands which were largely rundown, partly uninhabited and obviously due for some kind of blanket urban renewal. But even in a derelict setting I managed to photograph important remains of Cardiff's once - vibrant 'Tiger Bay' and other nearby communities, enough to give a feel for and venerate what had gone before.These images have been published in a book entitled 'Before the Deluge' (Seren, 2002). A selection of images from the book make up the first portfolio on this website.

'Taken in Time'

My second book, due to be published in 2005, documents the same Docklands communities a generation onwards. Cardiff's heavy industrial/maritime profile has undergone dramatic changes and the transition towards a 21st century leisure and consumer-oriented urban metropolis has swept away most of its Victorian seafaring past. A selection of images makes up a second portfolio on this website. I apologise for the hotchpotch appearance of the pages, due to the rigid and inflexible layout templates. I will get a better website in future!

'Newport Kaleidoscope'(1996)/'The Pubs of Newport'(1997)Photographs in these 2 volumes by local Newport author and historian Alan Roderick

'Newportraits' - Malpas Library Gallery, Newport, Jan. 2001

'In Quiet Pursuit' - Street Portraits from Wales and Beyond  - Cafe Europa, Cardiff, April 2001

'Before the Deluge' : Cardiff Docklands  in the 1970's - Butetown History and Arts Centre, Cardiff, May - Aug 2000 ; Foyer Galleries, St. David's Hall, Cardiff, Feb/March 2002 ; CitySpce Gallery, Birmingham, May 2003 ; Published by SEREN, Feb 2002. 

'Taken in Time' : Cardiff Docklands at the Turn of the Century - Norwegian Church Arts Centre, Cardiff April/May 2004.To be published by SEREN, 2005

'Minneapolis: City Images 1968 -71' - Hennepin History Museum - July - Dec 2004

Joint Exhibitions / Television Documentary

'Last Stand '- 4 Photographers Interaction with the Dunlop Semtex Factory, Brynmawr, Atlantic Coffee House, Cardiff, Dec 2001

'One Island, Many Faiths' - Butetown History and Arts Centre, Cardiff, 2002

'Bute Street : Cosmopolitan Highway' - Butetown History and Arts Centre, Cardiff, March - June 2003.

'Moving Stories : A History of Transport in Cardiff' - The Old Library, Cardiff, Dec 2004 - May 2005.

'Creative Roads': Photographers

With north Wales-based photographer Jeremy Moore I was the subject of an ITV Wales documentary, one of the'Creative Roads' series, produced by Gwenda Richards and shown on ITV Wales on 8th October, 2004 

Portfolio Updates

The content of this gallery will change as and when I get time, hopefully every few weeks.Selections for the time being will be drawn from the two bodies of work given particular mention on this page. Eventually I intend to display some American images, especially from my 2004 exhibition at the Hennepin History Museum in Minneapolis. Images from Newport, my adopted hometown in Wales, will also be shown. Contact me on john.briggs500@ntlworld.com with any comments you might wish to make.Please keep sarcastic quips about this website to a minimum!