Another Side of Existence
"As a little nursery child… sitting alone behind the nursery curtain to watch the great resplendent planet in the evening sky near sunset. The wonder and deep admiration I felt was surely something quite outside me, coming from another side of existence, of which I knew nothing, only that it was enchanting."
Thereza Dillwyn Llewelyn, quoted in Mary T. Bruick, Women in Early British and Irish Astronomy: Stars and Satellites, (London: Springer, 2009), p. 117.
Thereza Dillwyn Llewelyn, quoted in Mary T. Bruick, Women in Early British and Irish Astronomy: Stars and Satellites, (London: Springer, 2009), p. 117.
Thereza Dillwyn-Llewelyn (later Story-Maskelyne, 1834-1926), was the daughter of John and Mary Dillwyn-Llewelyn, the progressive Victorian family from Penllergare, near Swansea. She was a woman of many talents. Throughout her long life, Thereza’s interests spanned the sciences, politics, culture, and, importantly for this project, photography and astronomy, all of which she explored on her family’s estate. Indeed the landscaped Penllergare estate was designed as a place to ponder the picturesque, yet Thereza’s inquisitiveness drove her to look beyond such grounded beauty toward the boundless possibilities symbolized by the cosmos. This fascination with the ‘resplendent planet[s]’ encouraged her father John to build a magnificent observatory at Penllergare, and it was here, in 1858, that father and daughter collaborated to produce the now iconic - and at the time groundbreaking - photograph of the moon. Thereza was instrumental in the making of this image and it places her as an important figure in both astronomy and photography. Ibid. p. 118.
Thereza Dillwyn-Llewelyn was a forward-thinking woman who strove relentlessly to look above and beyond her own horizons at a time when this was not the accepted norm for women. Working in collaboration with the Penllergare Trust, Another Side of Existence forms part of an ongoing project that aims to bring this exceptional woman’s life back into focus. Both the observatory and the estate are currently being renovated, encouraging us to re-engage with Penllergare’s history and reconsider its relevance today. And though the windows of the observatory are fogged with almost 150 years of history, we are able capture fleeting glimpses of a distant historical moment.
Another Side of Existence, 2014
Another Side of Existence, 2014
Another Side of Existence, 2014
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