PATAGONIA
In 2001 & 2002 Ken went on three expeditions to Chubut in Patagonia, accompanied on by his friend and writer Norman Thomas di Giovanni. Both men had been moved by the journey that was made by 163 Welsh settlers in 1865, whose culture and language had been threatened by the changes brought along by the industrial revolution. Ken and Norman were accompanied by Edi Dorian Jones, whose great-grandfather was one of the original settlers. Together, they visited the Argentine province of Chubut, the heartland of Welsh Patagonia and they followed their journey from the Atlantic to the Andes. Ken returned to the region in 2009 with the crew of the feature film Patagonia. His photographs help to envision the place they call home and the rugged daily life of a community so far from the land where their great-grandparents were born.
"Ken Griffiths is himself an escapee, it’s in his blood. He was naturally drawn to Patagonia and its wilderness and keeps returning there to take wonderful photographs. I have seen him at work. He is patient, like a painter, and his sharp eye and long exposures capture the light as it moves across the contours of the land and the faces of its people. He looks like a victorian, albeit an outlawed one, standing there in vastness with his wide-brimmed hat, turning his trusted Gandolfi camera towards a pallid sky, photographing only something he can see."
Marc Evans
Director & Friend