Hollywood photographer creates mobile art museum in west Wales

A west Wales artist, who worked on Hollywood blockbuster Saving Private Ryan and award-winning TV series Band of Brothers, has set up a mobile museum on the back of a vehicle trailer to showcase rare memorabilia and art from throughout his career.

Seimon Pugh Jones, who shot war scenes in the critically-acclaimed Steven Spielberg productions, will display a collection of World War Two artefacts which he inherited during his work with Tom Hanks and David Schwimmer.

The mobile museum and art gallery will make its first appearance at Kidwelly’s Burns Centre in Parc y Bocs to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in May.

One side of the trailer represents his great-grandmother's bakery shop as it appeared in the early 1900s, while the other displays his extensive collection of artefacts.

• Swansea Correspondent Dean Thomas-Welch went to see Seimon's collections.

“We want to exhibit art, photography, artefacts, we want to put on theatre productions as well as music performances” Seimon told ITV Wales.

“We’ve made it a duel purpose exhibition space, one side needs to be practical and the other side needed to tell a story in its own right.”

After Covid restrictions were lifted, Seimon says he struggled to find exhibition space to showcase his work as many galleries were full.

That’s what gave him the idea to create his mobile gallery, with the help of his father Steven.

Seimon admits, after his father suffered health complications and he struggled with his mental health, the creation of the mobile gallery has been a help to both of them."It’s meant so much to both so much. Now the magic starts, pushing it to people who will appreciate what we've done.”

Seimon hopes to showcase his art in the coming months within the mobile museum, with paintings inspired by Under Milk Wood.

That will be a far cry from his days working with Oscar winner Tom Hanks and former Friends icon David Schwimmer.

“It was great to work amongst them. It was life-changing for me, it was an opportunity I never thought I would have.” 

“When working on Band of Brothers, we knew the production was going to be good but we had no idea that twenty years on it would still stand with people still watching and enjoying it," he added.

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