"I just shot what I saw"

David Bailey is most closely associated with fashion photography and the Swinging Sixties - so it came as something of a surprise to me to discover that he not only tried his hand as a documentary photographer but did so here in Wales. He was the highest-profile contributor to the Valleys Project, which was established by Ffotogallery and ran from 1985 to 1990 - a crucial period for the area, in light of the post-Miners' Strike pit closures and associated deindustrialisation.

David Owens spoke to Bailey recently about his involvement in the project for an article for Wales Online. In truth, though, his aren't the best images included in Owens' selection, which cumulatively suggest that the contributors succeeded in capturing the distinctive, complex reality of working-class life in the Valleys in much the same way that the Amber Collective did in the north east.