Cerdd Dannau

Inside the image.

A vertically composed photographic cover shows a fair-skinned woman standing behind a large harp. She occupies the left and centre of the frame, visible from about the waist up. Her body faces slightly towards the viewer, while her head and gaze turn to the right. Her shoulder-length blonde hair is swept leftwards, with several loose strands extending towards the edge. She wears a plain black V-neck top and holds her hands together over the harp’s curved wooden neck, near the centre of the image.

The harp fills much of the lower-left foreground and is cropped by the left and bottom edges. Its honey-coloured wooden frame curves down from beside the woman’s hands. Numerous fine strings run vertically across it, crossed by small tuning pins and fittings; a round decorative emblem is visible on the left side of the instrument. The woman and harp stand against a vivid blue painted door or wall that fills most of the background. Its surface has scuffs, small marks and uneven patches. A horizontal dark metal bar projects from the wall at lower right, and a small silver padlock hangs from a dark hasp below it. At the far right, a narrow strip of pale blue masonry blocks is visible. The framing is close, with the woman’s hair and the harp cut off at the left and the instrument continuing beyond the bottom edge.

White lettering is set in the open blue area to the woman’s upper right. The small words “cerdd dannau” appear in a loose, slanted script above the much larger name “GWENAN GIBBARD”, arranged over two lines in bold, condensed capitals with a distressed, mottled appearance. The text sits to the right of her face and upper body without obscuring them. The strong contrast of white against blue makes it prominent. The photograph is lit evenly, with soft shadows and natural-looking skin tones; the saturated blue wall and black clothing frame the pale hair, face and warm wood of the harp.