Features
The memories are still ripe in my mind. The rain sliding in a grey sheet across the train window, the cold air colliding with our faces and the wind catching our breath as we alight from the train at the inappropriately-named Coatbridge Sunnyside station. In the distance, piercing the sodden winter gloom, bright stripes of […]
“If you’re not rebelling, you’re not paying attention” is a quote on a placard and gives the title to a portfolio of photographs by Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert in 2019, documenting the climate protests on 2019 in Glasgow. Here he explains what he saw: “From young to old, seasoned campaigners to those learning to take action, the […]
It was with interest recently that I spotted a little link in a mailer from Street Level Photoworks / Photo Networks Scotland, that author Michael Cope would be doing a talk (last week) in Uist about his new book on The Photographs of Archie Chisholm. I wasn’t aware of the name Archie Chisholm, or of […]
Stephen McLaren talks about his new and ongoing work Edinburgh Unchained. After I finished taking photographs for my 2015 project, A Sweet Forgetting, which looked at how Scottish slave-owners made their fortunes in the production of sugar by thousands of enslaved Africans in 18th and 19th century Jamaica, I felt that there was some unfinished […]
As we approach our forthcoming exhibition at the Martin Parr Foundation in Bristol in January, 2019, each of the four Document Scotland photographers gives an insight into the work they have made for the show. Here, Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert tells of his project ‘Let Glasgow Flourish’: “I’ve always marvelled at the thought that walking down the street any one person […]
The British Journal of Photography recently announced their shortlist of photographers for their Portrait of Britain photo project, and we’re delighted that photographers and work from Scotland made the cut. Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert‘s portrait from Langholm Common Riding (from his Unsullied and Untarnished book of the Scottish Common Ridings) was selected, as are two portraits be Edinburgh-based Euan Myles (and […]
100 years of Scottish photography secured for the nationAn exceptional collection of historic photographs that captures a century of life in Scotland is to be shared with the public following a special collaboration between the National Library of Scotland and the National Galleries of Scotland. More than 14,000 images – dating from the earliest days […]
Nil Desperandum – the motto of Bellahouston Harriers running club, a club based in Glasgow’s Southside and formed in 1892. Boasting a long and prestigious history, including Olympians, the club has won many District and National level trophies. The club this week held a 125th anniversary run, commemorating the first recorded Bellahouston Harriers run on the […]
Photographer of Glasgow, Colin Templeton, is exhibiting work in a group show Photography Now, at the Brick Lane Gallery in London, from 8th – 20th November. There’s an opening night on the 8th Nov, 6.00- 8.30pm. Of the work he’ll exhibit Colin says, “The city is in constant flux. Right now in Glasgow the shipyard […]
One of the bodies of work we love in Document Scotland is Tom Kidd’s Life in Shetland. So we are delighted to showcase a second body of work from Tom, featuring life in Aberlour House School. Below, Tom tells how the project came about. (Title image: Aberlour House School, 1978/79. ©Tom Kidd 2017, all rights […]
Tanera (Ar Dùthaich) is a project by Derbyshire-based photographer Kevin Percival which will be exhibited from this Sunday, 18th June, at Rhue Art in Ullapool. The photographs featured focus on a tiny island off the west coast of Scotland, where Kevin lived and worked for several years. Like many of Scotland’s coastal communities, the challenges […]
LOS ANGELES – During the rise of industrialization in mid-19th century Scotland, Thomas Annan ranked as the preeminent photographer of Glasgow. For more than 25 years, he prodigiously recorded the people, the social landscape, and the built environment of the city during a period of rapid growth and change. Thomas Annan: Photographer of Glasgow, on […]
A PERFECT CHEMISTRY: PHOTOGRAPHS BY HILL & ADAMSON27 May – 1 October 2017SCOTTISH NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY This summer the Scottish National Portrait Gallery will explore the captivating images produced by the unique partnership of Scottish photographic pioneers David Octavius Hill (1802-1870) and Robert Adamson (1821-1848). A Perfect Chemistry will comprise over 100 photographic works dating […]
The work of Scottish photographer Keith Lloyd Davenport first came to our attention last year when Document Scotland held a portfolio review session in Cardiff at the launch of our Common Ground exhibition at the city’s Millennium Centre. It’s fair to say that tackling the subject of fishermen as a documentary photographer offers both abundant […]
GRAHAM MACINDOE: COMING CLEAN8 April – 5 November 2017Scottish National Portrait Gallery1 Queen Street, Edinburgh, EH2 1JDAdmission free#GrahamMacIndoe Powerful self-portraits depicting drug addiction of acclaimed Scottish photographer to be shown by National Galleries of Scotland A compelling and powerful series of photographs that document an acclaimed Scottish photographer’s devastating descent into drug addiction are to […]
Article by Stephen McLaren By returning to photography as both a craft and a career after an enforced period of absence due to illness, Margaret Mitchell reminds us that personal visions remain across decades.
30th July 2016 “ It tests you physically, mentally and emotionally. Every single corner of your psyche gets seriously rinsed out here……….” (Title image: Starlings On Fire, © Peter Iain Campbell, all rights reserved.) SEARCHING FOR THE ANTITHESIS / A TANGLED WEB OF PIPING 11th November 2013 – 12th August 2014 Being strapped to a seat […]
We’re delighted to read that Chris Leslie‘s Disappearing Glasgow project is getting another outing, this time as a multimedia exhibition at Glasgow Lighthouse space. If you missed Chris’s recent Glasgow School of Art show, then you should hurry along to see this arrangement of the works… Exhibition info: Photographer and filmmaker Chris Leslie is widely […]
Scotland’s pioneering role in the development of photography in the 19th century is being celebrated in a new display at the National Library of Scotland. The exhibition runs until March 26th, and entry is free. It features one of the first ever books to be illustrated with photographs, William Henry Fox Talbot’s Sun Pictures in […]
In Scotland’s Season of Photography, the Scottish Fisheries Museum is delighted to be hosting a striking exhibition of black and white images shot by Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert aboard the seine net fishing boats, Mairead and Argosy, in the North Sea in the 1990’s. These images capture the reality of the life at sea for the fishermen […]
It would be easy to label Larry Herman’s work as ‘old school’. His photography is indeed imbued with an aesthetic sense which resonates the past. Grainy, monochrome images which depict life at a time when Scotland’s Industrial Age was coming to an end and the new service economy and its illegitimate offspring, unemployment and job […]
A few friends of Document Scotland are having a 2-venue show in the coming weeks called Peripheral Histories. See below for all the important info and hope to see you at one of the two venues for this Street Level Photoworks supported show! We’re told there is different work in each venue, so make sure to […]
Jeremy’s image from the Glasgow shipyards, taken in 1992 and currently featured in the exhibition Govan/Gdansk at Street Level Photoworks in Glasgow was featured in the Guardian this week with an interview by Ben Beaumont Thomas. You can read the interview here: “In the 1990s I lived in Govan, on the south side of Glasgow, […]
We’re pleased to hear that Glasgow-born photojournalist Harry Benson CBE, and Honorary Patron of Document Scotland, is having an exhibition at the Scottish Parliament later this year. The press release from Holyrood, reproduced below, tells all… An exhibition featuring the work of one of the world’s most renowned photographers, Harry Benson CBE, is to go on display […]
To mark today’s final printed edition of the Independent, Document Scotland’s Colin McPherson talks about his contribution to the newspaper and the motivation behind the publication of a book of his photographs taken on assignment for, or published by, the paper. Document Scotland (DS): Today, 26th March, the last edition of the Independent will hit […]
Perth-based photographer Graham Miller‘s lastest body of work, ‘Autism: Hearts of Angels’, will be exhibited at The Birnam Institute, Dunkeld, in March. The exhibition runs from Wednesday 2nd of March to Thursday March 31st with the official opening reception March 6th from 2pm to 4pm, at The Birnam Institute, Station Road, Birnam, Dunkeld, PH8 0DS. Background […]
JOSEPH McKenzie had a secret. For the last 35 years of his life, the man known as “the father of modern Scottish photography” stopped exhibiting his pictures, withdrawing from public life. In the eyes of the world, he had retired, retreated to his home in Tayport, on Scotland’s east coast, with its long view over […]
At a recent Street Level Photoworks ‘In Focus’ event, looking at book publishing, which we attended, we had the pleasure of listening to Lucie Rachel discuss her book-in-progress, ‘Mother Father’, a story documenting the relationship of her parents. Impressed with the work, and Lucie’s approach, we asked if we could showcase it here. Lucie kindly […]
*** New just in! There’s going to be a second edition of the book printed. Another 150 are being printed to meet demands! More news soon, once they’re available *** Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert’s fourth Café Royal Book was released last Thursday, and very nicely sold out overnight! Thank you everyone for your interest and support. ‘Klondykers in […]
I’m very pleased to let you know that the black and white images I took of Nelson Mandela, in Glasgow in 1993, when he came to here to receive the Freedom of the City (and which I’ve written about previously), have been published as a little book by the industrious Craig Atkinson at Café Royal Books. On […]
Nick Hedges’ photographs for Shelter 1969-72 In 1968, Shelter employed Nick Hedges to document the oppressive and abject living conditions being experienced in poor quality housing in the UK. We commissioned the work in an effort to raise consciousness about the extent of unfit living conditions and to illustrate, in human terms, what the real […]
To coincide with our new exhibition, ‘The Ties That Bind‘, on now at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, until April 2016, Jeremy has published a book of his work, ‘Unsullied And Untarnished’, portraying the Common Riding festivals of the Scottish Borders. The same work forms Jeremy’s contribution to our SNPG show. ‘Unsullied And Untarnished’ is photographic portrait […]
Document Scotland photographer Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert talks about his work covering fishing in the North Sea in the 1990s and his adventures on the stormy-tossed waters off the east coast. “Back in the day I’d had an assignment from a Scottish newspaper to go out on a fishing boat which was taking part in a fisherman’s […]
A Stroll Through The Gorbals To walk in the Gorbals area of Glasgow is to walk through a district of this city immortalised in iconic photographs, a district whose name is known far and wide, for better or for worse, and whose history has been captured in silver by some of the great photojournalists of […]
We recently caught up a a Street Level Photoworks show opening with photographer Chris Leslie, who has been working hard these past three years photographing and documenting Glasgow’s East End and the transformation underway there. Chris has been working with 2 other artists and has recently published Nothing Is Lost, a box set of books. […]
Journalist and editor Alan Taylor has kindly given us permission to republish his appreciation of photographer Joseph McKenzie who recently passed away, aged 86. This article first ran in The National, on July 20th 2015. (See also The Herald obituary of Jospeh McKenzie.) Belated praise for Joseph McKenzie – a neglected pioneer of Scottish photography, by […]
We were very excited to hear of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery’s latest photography acquisition, great to hear that nine images from South Uist, in the Outer Hebrides, by Paul Strand have been acquired for the nations’s photography collection. Great news indeed. Below, you can read about the acquisition and see the images, but we recommend […]
In the last six months I have been shooting a project which examines Scotland’s links with the slave-based sugar economy of Jamaica in the 18th and 19th Century. I visited Jamaica in early Spring and shot photographs of properties which were owned Scottish plantation-owners owned and which grew sugar-cane using the forced labour of African […]
An email slipped into our Document Scotland inboxes recently which we felt would be good to share with everyone, telling us of a new book out on Thomas Annan, Scottish documentary photographer. “…latest Open Access book, Thomas Annan of Glasgow: Pioneer of the Documentary Photograph by Lionel Gossman, a study of nineteenth-century photography, urban life, and Scotland – […]
We caught up recently with Donnie MacLean, whose work we have featured previously, to see what he has been up to on the streets and we were pleased to hear that he’s just about to launch new work in a new photography show along with a book, ‘A Glasgow Kiss’. Below we share some of […]