The Book of Cardiff

About the book

The Book of Cardiff is a hardcover bound portrait of the city told through around 300 stunning photographs taken over a 12-month period.

“The book covers about a year in the life of the city” says the author. “As an expatriate Australian, I don’t pretend to understand the history of Cardiff in any detail. Nor do I have the cultural ties that would give me an informed, insider’s perspective. But I do bring the eye of a resident tourist still delighted with just how pleasant it is to live in a city that can be covered largely by foot or bicycle.”

“At the time of writing, I’ve lived in Cardiff just over a year” says Kirkwood. “It’s not such a long time really but to delay this book any further would be to miss the opportunity of seeing the town as a fresh outsider. As a photographer, it’s important to grab that ‘new car feeling’ and breath it in before the sights that seem fascinating become commonplace.”

In the preface to the book, Kirkwood writes that the Welsh capital is fast becoming one of the “great post-industrial cities of Britain. Full of optimism, open spaces, and renewed foreshore.” He believes that Cardiff is “taking its place beside so many urban centres which have emerged, finally, from the collapse of industry, manufacturing and mining that so brutally shook the Kingdom in the 1980s and 90s.”

“It’s also a city that’s changing quickly” he says, “as the industrial spaces disappear to make way for new retail, commercial and residential projects.”

About the author

Craig Kirkwood is an Australian- born photographer, publisher and entrepreneur whose work has appeared in exhibitions and publications all over the world.

He moved to Cardiff in 2015 and immediately set about documenting both the landscape and the cultural life of the city, taking over 20 000 photographs of hundreds of festivals, events, concerts and everyday life in the city.

Prior to moving to Wales, Craig was the CEO of high- profile creative media consultancy, Fearless Media, which he founded in 1999. At the time, Fearless was the largest organisation of its kind in Australia with offices and facilities throughout the country.

He was also a regional manager of the Australian Film, Television and Radio School and founded the renowned Flickerfest International Film Festival on Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach which continues today in its 27th year.

The Book of Cardiff is the next in a series of books he’s producing on towns and cities in the UK. The last publication, The Book of Aber (Aberystwyth) sold out within 6 months of printing.