Eisteddfod gold: Cerian captures lost Welsh roots

A Coleg Sir Gâr A-level student has won first prize in the Eisteddfod for her editing and photography skills used in an image she created which conveyed lost roots of Welsh tradition. 

Cerian MacRae won the best colour digitally manipulated image at this year’s Eisteddfod and was presented with her prize at a presentation evening at Ysgol Bro Dinefwr. 

Her work was also exhibited at the Eisteddfod in Margam. 

She has been interested in photography since she was in her early teens when a photographer gave her a camera to explore at an outdoor event. Since then, she found her dad’s old digital camera and started taking family portraits for her art GCSE.

Cerian decided to enter the modified photograph competition because she could use any software to modify an original photograph or create a new digital image. “For this image I wanted to show the roots of Welsh traditions in a symbolic way with the use of daffodils,” she said. “I photographed my young cousin in traditional Welsh dress in front of a stone brick wall. I then used Photoshop to edit her into a glass vase as if she was being trapped, as a way of saying she was being repressed and placed in the back of our minds, to be forgotten. I then edited a picture of daffodils in front of the vase facing towards the camera to make the vase look like the roots of the flowers. I completed all of this to ensure it looked like the Welsh traditions which are the roots of Welsh culture were being repressed and put away to eventually be forgotten.” 

With aspirations of becoming a photographer, Cerian chose to study the subject at A-level where she is learning a new visual language.

Coleg Sir Gâr photography course tutor Simon Thomas added: “Cerian has worked hard all year to develop her technical skills in Adobe Photoshop, refining her techniques in building composite often multi-layered surreal images.

“I am very proud of her development as a creative photographer that uses modern technology to a high standard in all her portfolio outcomes.”