Conspicuous by their absence from David Hurn's recent exhibition Ynyshir: 25 Mile Radius at the Workers Gallery (or so I gather from the Offline write-up - sadly I didn't get there to see it myself) were the photographer's images of the Aberfan disaster. As Offline's reviewer (and editor) Brian Carroll suggested, they were omitted "perhaps justly". That fateful day in October 1966 might be more than half a century ago now, but no doubt there will still be those living locally for whom the pictures would have brought back excruciatingly painful memories.
Nevertheless, Hurn doesn't regret the fact that he and fellow photographer Ian Berry turned up and captured the aftermath: the devastation; the frantic efforts to locate and rescue children and teachers buried under the spoil; the dirty, wearied and despairing faces. On the contrary, he's insisted: "It's a really good example of photography absolutely justifying being done." The pair's cameras bore witness to what happened, and sent shockwaves around the country and indeed the world.
Grant Scott of The United Nations Of Photography has recently written about arguably the most famous of the images, which shows one boy comforting another as they survey the nightmarish scenes from above. It's a sensitive appreciation that focuses in on the hole in the older boy's jumper - a detail that you might otherwise overlook but that in fact says so much.
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