Man in Pontypridd, Wales
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This CDV caught my eye because of the way the man’s rather angled pose visually extends the sweep of the drape behind him. Sometimes I look at this photo, with its cluster of subject matter on the left and the blank space on the right, and I think it looks off-balance. Other times I look at it and think it has a nice yin-and-yang sense of harmony. I also like the way he has poise and energy, despite the seemingly relaxed quality of the pose. The photographer is Thomas Forrest of Cambrian Studios in Pontypridd, Wales, and when I was googling him, I came across this unusually thorough article about him. Besides providing information and other samples of his work, the author put together a guide to dating this photographer’s works, which indicates this photo is from around the 1870s, which is probably what I would have guessed anyway. And to help with the dating, here is a scan of the back:
Pics of Then 
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