Blynyddoedd Sain 1977

Inside the image.

A square monochrome cover pairs a close portrait with a large area of open white space. A smiling man fills much of the left half, cropped by the left and lower edges. His head sits near the upper-left corner; his dark, wavy hair is tousled, and his face turns slightly towards the viewer’s right. His eyes are narrowed by his broad, open-mouthed smile, with teeth visible. He wears a light-coloured collared shirt, its soft folds and seams visible across the lower-left and centre. One bent arm or sleeve crosses the bottom-left foreground, though the crop makes its exact pose unclear.

The portrait is a black-and-white photograph with a softly lit, pale background. Dark hair and shadows around the face contrast with the light shirt and nearly blank right side. The photograph has a gentle tonal range, with no strong cast shadow or visible border. The man’s shoulder and shirt extend towards the middle, but the right third remains mostly empty, giving the composition an airy, asymmetrical balance.

Two lines of dark serif lettering sit in the white space: “Geraint Griffiths” near the top, to the right of centre, and “Blynyddoedd Sain 1977-1988” along the bottom, beginning just right of the portrait and extending towards the lower-right edge. The letterforms are widely spaced; the upper line is smaller, while the lower line is larger and more prominent. The restrained typography and unadorned photographic treatment leave the laughing portrait as the clear focal point.