Dayz Out in Porthcawl Ron McCormick

The British obsession with the seaside is alive and kicking in the industrial towns and former mining villages of South Wales. Whether it be Porthcawl, Barry Island or Benidorm, for the ordinary folks of Wales there is a compelling desire to have a great day out, and a night on the tiles is a powerful incentive to help them cope with the drudgery of every day life. A day out, or a week at the seaside with the family is a welcome escape. Doing it with your mates and a reason to dress up and have a few beers, is an added bonus and Porthcawl offers it all.

Ron McCormick has been photographing the British seaside off and on for fifty years and first exhibited some of that work in 1973 in a two-man show (with Josef Koudelka) about the Essex seaside resort of Southend-on-Sea. This current work returns to the theme with a selection of pictures made in Porthcawl over the last twelve years and takes in “girls nights out”, “the cult of Elvis” and “a family day at the seaside” overlaid with a whiff of hedonistic celebration that mirrors the extravagant indulgence of Blackpool, Brighton and Bognor.

Dayz Out in Porthcawl
Ron McCormick
Foreword by Stephen Clarke
68 pages
230 x 210mm
Colour digital printing