Interviews with Photographers
Margaret Mitchell interviews Alexander Williamson Margaret recently caught up with Alexander Williamson to discuss his ongoing work Unseasonably Warm. Here, Alexander shares the background and motivations on his project as well as reflections on the wider climate change issues it speaks to. Melted snowmen, ColyumbridgeDate: 26 February 2022. Time: 3.46pm. Temperature: 6 degrees centigrade ©Alexander […]
As part of his placement with Document Scotland Edinburgh Napier photography student Taylor Cowe interviews Saskia Coulson and Colin Tennant about their latest work.
Margaret Mitchell interviews Stuart Edwards Margaret recently caught up with Stuart Edwards to discuss his ongoing work Barras Market, along with his motivations and reflections on pursuing a long-term project that evokes nostalgia while highlighting the importance of community and stability of everyday routines. ©Stuart Edwards // Barras Market MM: Your project ‘Barras Market’ has been […]
Document Scotland interviews Iain Sarjeant about Another Place Press and his latest work
Margaret Mitchell interviews Robbie Murrie Margaret recently caught up with Robbie Murrie to chat about his ongoing work Polo Mint City as well as his reflections on his route into photography and the creative process during long term projects. MM: It’s always interesting to find out what draws photographers into projects and the topics they […]
Sofia approached Document Scotland a while ago after completing her MA in Photography from Falmouth University. We caught up with her for a chat about her motivations for making the work and her various projects about Glasgow. DS: Hi Sofia – Thanks for sending us your work, tell us a little about the project SC: […]
I first met Rob when we both worked on the group project Sixteen, a photographic touring exhibition involving sixteen international photographers making portraits and exploring the dreams, hopes and fears of sixteen-year olds across the UK. The idea came about thanks to Craig Easton and I loved the collaborative aspect of this project, working alongside […]
Document Scotland is delighted to present work by Frances Scott entitled Undertow and A9. Frances is a photographer whose work Document Scotland have admired having enjoyed her book Undertow, published by Another Place Press, detailing her walks over the Orkney islands. A recently published ‘zine also by by the same publisher features a previous body […]
In the first of a series of portfolios from Shetland islands, Document Scotland looks at the work made by the Map6 photography collective. -Who are the MAP6 photography collective, and how did you come together? Six of the original members first met whilst studying on the MA Photography course at The University of Brighton. Some […]
There is a lot of discussion at present about what our towns and cities will look and feel like in the post-COVID world. A death spiral of economic activity and loss of both permanent and transient populations, could lastingly render the centres barren wastelands, redundant in many different senses.
In the summer of 2019, Elliot Caunce made the decision to relocate to Scotland from Cornwall. As he saw it, there were two factors that led to that decision. In the first instance, he had asked a Dundee woman to marry him, and in true Scot fashion, she saw no logical reason why they should […]
A few days back photographer Iain McLean told Colin and I that he’d been working on a series of portraits of homeless people, and assisted by the Simon Community Scotland. Today he shares with us some of the work, which is still ongoing and due to be exhibited in October, along with his thoughts on the project.
Today Paul Glazier launches a kickstarter to support his new book “Island Tides” Published with Bluecoat Press the book documents life on Vatersay in the Outer Hebrides over the 35 year period Paul visited the island.
Document Scotland caught up with photographer Holger Mohaupt to talk to him about his work titled The CoronaTapes, a project made in response to the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic crisis. Walking with Gloves – A Pandemic Diary DS- How did the project come about?HM – The project wasn’t planned, it emerged from conversations with people in […]
Document Scotland was delighted to be able to talk to recent graduate photographer Ili Mansor about her work titled Salaam. Salaam is a short form for ‘As-salamu alaykum’ which means may peace be upon you, a universal greeting Muslims greet each other with. Salaam (peace) is the main concept of this body of work. Islamophobia […]
Ask The Sea, by Peter Iain Campbell. Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert, of Document Scotland – Can you tell us how this cool work came about? Peter Iain Campbell – “Ask The Sea” is the follow up project to my “Starlings On Fire” work which I shot while I was working on a Drilling Rig in the central […]
Trying to keep up to date with the current tumultuous news of life on Twitter it’s heartening to scroll to a Tweet which shows images and catches your eyes. Such has been the way this past week or so when I’ve discovered two photographers posting old images of Glasgow and beyond. I dropped them both a note, […]
Save It For a Rainy Day, by photographer Doro Zinn, is currently showing at Glasgow’s Street Level Photoworks until the 8th September. Document Scotland photographer Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert caught up with Doro via email, kindly she’s allowing us to share some of her photography from The Gorbals, an area of Glasgow which has been much frequented by […]
We’re very pleased to be able to bring you the work of Glasgow-Based photographer Wattie Cheung, who has recently been working on a series of portraits of Scottish D-Day veterans. Wattie, who was Scottish Press Photographer of the Year 2018 (amongst other awards), shares with us some of the work and the story behind the […]
Born in Edinburgh, Craig Easton is a photographer whose work is deeply rooted in the documentary tradition. His photography often uses a mix of intimate portraiture and large format landscape to explore social histories and identity. His early career was defined by his work for the groundbreaking Independent newspaper in London and he has since gone […]
This interview by Sophie predates Margaret joining Document Scotland. The final project has 100 images and ran from 2015-2019 Over three Halloweens (2015-7), Margaret Mitchell photographed children who visited her home as Guisers. Their highly individual costumes displayed not only their originality but also conveyed aspects of the inner world of the child. Sophie spoke […]
Paul Duke’s new book of photography, No Ruined Stone, reminds us that the places in which we grow up rarely leave us, they exert a pull across the decades and often force us in later life to re-examine how we have become the person we are today. Muirhouse, built in the 1950s as a council estate to […]
Mhairi Bell-Moodie’s work, Nevertheless, She Persisted telling the stories of women who have faced adversity is currently being exhibited at Out of the Blue in Edinburgh. Mhairi worked closely with 25 women who have overcome child loss, domestic abuse, rape, self harm, body dysmorphia, suicide attempts, breast cancer and much more. We spoke to Mhairi about the […]
‘Masc’ – by Craig Waddell is a series of queer portraits that challenge the outdated idea of conventional masculinity. Document Scotland first saw Craig’s work at The Edinburgh College of Art degree show in 2017, we wanted to know more and so Sophie chatted with Craig recently about his motivation behind making the work and […]
‘Black Dots’ by Nicholas White is an exploration of mountain bothies and bothy culture throughout the United Kingdom. Many of the structures, landscapes and people included in the project were photographed in Scotland, Sophie caught up with Nicholas to talk about the project… “Far from civilisation and mostly accessible only by foot, bothies are secluded […]
This week I attended the opening of Paul Walton’s Hum, which runs until 9th February in an exhibition space on the 5th floor of Glasgow University’s St. Andrew’s building. I have been an admirer of Paul’s work for a number of years, and was impressed to see this collection of over 70 hand printed silver gelatin prints, […]
WildFires is a new collective of female photographers working in Scotland. Initiated by Dr. Katherine Parhar, the group’s first exhibition, When the Light Shifts, is on display at Glasgow Women’s Library until 1st April. Here, Sarah speaks to Katherine about the ideas and aims behind the initiative. SAF: Katherine, can you tell us a bit about […]
Frank McElhinney’s work first came to our attention in 2014 when he won first place at that year’s Jill Todd Award for his intriguing, unique aerial photographs. Since then this prolific artist has gone from strength to strength, creating several bodies of work focussing on Scotland’s landscape and how it relates to our country’s past, both […]
The work of Jo Spence, British photographer, educator and writer (1934 – 1992) is the focus for Stills Gallery’s summer exhibition. Curated by Ben Harman, the exhibition presents a powerful and important collection of Jo Spence’s work from her documentary work and collaborative projects to her self exploratory portraiture. From Stills exhibition introduction: ‘Typically working […]
Cliftonhill is one of the most evocative grounds in Scottish football, yet one suspects hardly anyone in Scotland could describe what it looks like or even – given Albion Rovers’ name – where it is. Photographer Iain McLean has spent many years visiting the ground as a fan and a photographer. His project, entitled More […]
The village of New Lanark, nestled in the sprawling Clyde Valley on the Falls of the Clyde became world renown in the 19th century as one of the earliest examples of a socialist utopian community. Built as a cotton mill by the industrialist David Dale in 1846, here workers conditions were revolutionised with the implementation […]
Gregor Schmatz has recently finished a BA Photography at Edinburgh Napier University. Document Scotland caught up with him and had a chat about his ongoing degree show project about Methil in Fife, Scotland. DS: Tell us a little about yourself Gregor, and why you decided to make this particular project. GS: I was born in […]
“I grew up in London and first went up to the island of Vatersay when I was 12. I fell in love with the place immediately and kept returning to the island once or twice a year for many years. It seemed so real after the suburbs of London. Although I was busy photographing the […]
Sophie was recently invited to speak about Document Scotland as part of TalkSee Photography at Glasgow’s Centre for Contemporary Arts. It was a lively evening – a great turnout with a good debate afterwards and also it was the first time we met Arpita Shah – and saw her speak about her photography. One of […]
Chris Leslie is a documentary photographer and film-maker based in Glasgow. We were very pleased to feature his work at our Document Scotland Summer Salon event in August last year. For 3 years now, Chris has been working on a long term photography and multimedia project, The Glasgow Renaissance, documenting the city of Glasgow as it […]
Sandy Carson is a Scottish photographer now living in Austin, Texas. He is an established photojournalist in America and has rarely been back to Scotland. Recently however, he returned to catch-up with his family in Newmains, Lanarkshire and started a series of photographs about his folks called, Steadfast Love, a series of intimate portraits including […]
We happened upon the work of Donnie MacLean at a recent Street Level Photoworks portfolio review session. Donnie had come and had brought a small self-published book to show to myself and Sophie. It’s always a nervous moment for the reviewer, will the work be good, or will it be truly awful and you struggle […]
Paul Duke, a Scottish photographer who now lives in London, has completed a series of black and white portraits of the men and women who work in the fishing industry on the North East coast. Each subject was shot uniformly, standing against a dark backdrop in a portable studio which Paul set-up in shipyards, factories […]
Over here at Document Scotland we were recently chatting with photographer Niall McDiarmid, and he mentioned that the Watermill Gallery, in Aberfeldy, were soon to publish two books on Scottish photography. We were intrigued, so we got in touch with Kevin Ramage, publisher of the books and owner of the gallery, and he kindly put aside […]
Over here at Document Scotland we were recently excited to find out that Craig Atkinson, under his Cafe Royal Books publishing name, was going to be publishing a book of photographs from the Gorbals area of Glasgow, by renowned advertising and portrait photographer John Claridge. Our curiosity was piqued, we hadn’t known that John Claridge […]