Renowned London-based editorial and reportage photographer David Levenson has had a small zine published via Cafe Royal Books, showcasing his photographs of the Burry Man tradition in South Queensferry, Scotland. We thought it a great little set of images, and nice to see archive work finding new uses. We asked David via email if he’d be […]
Born in 1821, Alexander Gardner was a Paisley boy, before setting off in 1851 for London where he met American photographer Matthew Brady. In 1856 he left Britain by ship for American where he reunited with Brady and joined his studio. Subsequently Gardner went on to become one of the first, and most famous war […]
We’ve decided to showcase some of our many projects and work in a new Document Scotland publication, a 16 page colour newspaper, with the catchy title of DOC001. Primarily designed and published for our own use, we’re so happy with the look of it that we thought we’d also offer them to the readers of […]
Friend of Document Scotland Colin Templeton has a photography show beginning this week, and we hope you can show support for it, and pay it a visit during it’s duration of 2nd -25th February, at the Glasgow Art Club, 185 Bath Street, Glasgow. More information can be found on the Glasgow Art Club website. You […]
Glasgow-born press photographer Brian Anderson has for many years work on his self-initiated and self-funded project ‘FACES, A Photographic Journey Through The Underworld’. The result of this work is a two volume book which depicts the British criminal underworld, portraying the leading figures or ‘Faces’, and documenting the lifestyle of the participants, the gangland killings […]
“”Oh wad some power the giftie gie us To see oursel’s as others see us!” In asking God to give us the ability to see ourselves the way we appear to others, Robert Burns was musing on the personality and character traits that go into making us the individuals we are. But the quote might […]
It is with great pleasure that Document Scotland can today showcase the work by Glyn Satterley, from his latest book ‘Going To The Hill, Life On Scottish Sporting Estates’. This is the tenth book by Glyn, a renowned freelancer whose work has been widely exhibited and published in magazines. He has spent many years documenting […]
Today we have the pleasure of showcasing as a folio the photographs from Glyn Satterley’s latest book, his tenth, called ‘Going To The Hill, Life on Scottish Sporting Estates’. Below you can view selective pages from the book, and click here to purchase Glyn Satterley’s ‘Going To The Hill, Life On Scottish Sporting Estates’. [issuu width=420 height=229 […]
Twenty years ago this weekend, on 5th January 1993, the Lerwick coastguard were advised that the Liberian-registered oil tanker, the MV Braer, carrying 85,000 tonnes of crude oil, was drifting without power in a storm 10 miles off of Sumburgh Head, in the Shetland Isles. The vessel eventually settled on rocks, leaking her cargo of […]
On a brilliantly bright, icy cold, winter Sunday afternoon recently I caught up with Giulietta Verdon Roe over coffee and cake. I knew that Giulietta had made several visits to the remote Scottish island of North Ronaldsay over a number of years to create a documentary photographic project of the population and character of the island. […]
Award-winning social documentary photographer Larry Herman, originally from New York, immigrated to the UK during the Vietnam War. He is currently working on two independent projects: Waged London, about those people who generally sell their labour by the hour and he has just begun a project in Cuba about the working lives of people there. […]
It is with great pleasure that Document Scotland has the privilege of highlighting the work of veteran photographer Larry Herman. Here we reproduce our interview with him about a specific body of work which he made in Scotland in the 1970s, entitled ‘Clydeside’. A selection of the images from the Larry Herman’s Clydeside project can […]
Today here on Document Scotland we post a portfolio of Sarah Amy Fishlock’s ‘Middlemen’ series, work examining the lives of former Iraqi translators working for the British Governement and army in Iraq. We caught up with Sarah and she kindly agreed to answer some questions about her project via email: DS- What made you take […]
Document Scotland is pleased to be able to show Sarah Amy Fishlock’s ‘Middlemen’ series, a portraiture project which documents the plight of three Iraqi interpreters who have fled Iraq and now live in Glasgow, a portrait of those who live here but who sometimes seem invisible and ignored, and for whom a new life far […]
How many archives have you ever come across that document one area of a country, that span 112 years, and from which all the images were shot by three generations of photographers from the same family ? Not many we expect. Is it even possible you wonder. But indeed, as great as it sounds, there […]
It is with great privilege and excitement here at Document Scotland, that today we run both a selection of images from, and a large article about the impressive Johnston Collection based in Wick, a collection spanning 112 years and encompassing the work of three generations of the Johnston family. Visit the website of The Johnston […]
“Can someone from elsewhere tell someone from here anything about their homeland that they don’t already know?” … asks Polish photographer Radek Nowacki in his project The Scots DNA which he sent along to us at Document Scotland recently. “I was looking for quiet and some kind of lyrical documentary style, simple and strong portraits […]
Many of Scotland most well-known and successful photographers revel in the Scottish landscape- the feast of grand vistas and small natural delights provides an almost infinite variety of subject matter. That said, the ubiquity of Scottish landscapes featured in postcards, calendars and book can vere towards repetition and over-familiarity. How many stunning shots of Glencoe […]
Alexander Gardner, the 19th century Scottish photographer, is the last person you expect to find late on a Thursday evening hanging out on Twitter, but indeed to my amusement and surprise I somehow stumbled into his Twitter feed. Alexander Gardner was, or is (since he is still tweeting and nice to see he’s taken to […]
Document Scotland is delighted to announce that photographer Sophie Gerrard will be joining us as a core member with immediate effect. Edinburgh-born Sophie is gaining a growing reputation for her work, both in Scotland and further afield. As well as working as an editorial photographer for many of the London-based broadsheet newspapers and magazines, Sophie […]
The Human Endeavour Collective will be exhibiting for the third time as part of the Brighton Photo Fringe, having exhibited in 2008 and 2010 with the backing of the Arts Council England. Acting as an evolving platform for contemporary photographic practice, Human Endeavour aims to explore and reflect the sociological and political impacts of poverty […]
The mesmerising Glasgow landscapes which Martin Hunter has shot over the last decade show us a city unrecognisable from the brochures promoting the “Style Mile” or the Merchant City. In this series, Martin gone off-road, he has lugged his large-format Linhof camera around the winds of the River Kelvin and over the eastend’s “spare” ground. […]
The Jill Todd Photographic Award has been set up to promote new photography in Scotland and will stage its inaugural event at Whitespace (formerly Doggerfisher Gallery) in Edinburgh between the 2-11th November 2012. Three winners have been selected from an open submission to the JTPA, and their work will be showcased in the gallery and […]
It’s evening, autumn 2012, and I’m at the desk, digging back through the hard-drive of my memory, looking for an evening some thirteen years that is filed away in some dark corner. Henri Cartier-Bresson, Edinburgh, 1999. Eve Arnold too. I do have memories… I also have photographs. Can I trust either? Much as I love […]
In 2012, Glasgow Rangers Football Club were wound up and relegated. They started again at the bottom of Scottish Football League. Document Scotland’s Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert followed te team as they embarked on life in the Third Division. ‘These images are part of an ongoing project, a document of an unusual, exciting and historically unprecedented year […]
“The Seaside Highland Games in Ventura, California, is one of the biggest Highland Games in the US. With its mix of pipe bands, country dancing, clan stalls and heavy athletic trials, it could be a Highland Games in Scotland. The sweltering heat, the majestic palm trees and the fact that every kilt-wearer speaks with a […]
“In the shade of St. Andrew’s House the press awaited the appearance of, and handshake between, Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond and British Prime Minister David Cameron. The cold seeped to the marrow of journalists and photographers, as the police and politician’s aides kept us all behind barriers. With little fanfare, and with the lone […]
Paul Strand‘s book of Hebridean photographs, ‘Tir a’Mhurian‘, was published fifty years ago this month. In The Guardian’s Scottish Blog Fraser MacDonald, of Edinburgh university, reviews it’s relevance and the background to Strand’s project. By kind permission of Fraser MacDonald, and The Guardian we republish his article here. Paul Strand’s Hebrides: subtle, sensitive with a dash […]
Scottish photographer Glyn Satterley has a new book, ‘Going To The Hill, Life On The Scottish Sporting Estates’, out tomorrow. Here at Document Scotland we eagerly look forward to seeing it. The publisher describes Glyn’s new book as “a celebration of Scotland’s rich sporting heritage by internationally acclaimed photographer Glyn Satterley. This is the sequel to […]
In 1955 American photographer Robert Frank received a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation grant to travel across the United States and photograph all strata of its society. He took his family along with him for part of his series of road trips over the next two years, during which time he took 28,000 shots. Only 83 of those images were […]
“I was on a self initiated shoot, down in the Scottish borders, shooting in black and white on my Leica cameras, a story which I had already placed with a magazine, when I got wind of another little story. Hound dogs. “So what’s that then, how does that work ?” I enquired. A week or […]
“Paddy’s Market, “the type of place you go to buy one shoe lace” was how I first heard it described. Paddy’s Market’s reputation was a long one with a 200 year old history, and not always one portrayed in a good light. Rumours had circulated for years that it would close, the Glasgow city centre […]
Last week, the island of Easdale was in the news about a threat to a world-class sporting event held on its square mile of craggy slate anchored off the Argyll coast. Apparently the island’s owner wanted to cancel the island’s premier sporting event of the season, the World Stone Skimming Championships, for not providing a […]
Scottish photographer Niall McDiarmid was recently awarded a prize for portraiture in the International Photography Awards for his current Crossing Paths portraiture project, an ongoing project which stands as a social document of the looks and styles of people on the streets of the UK at present. Niall kindly agreed to answer a few emailed questions from Document Scotland about the background to […]
Scottish photographer Niall McDiarmid was recently awarded a prize for portraiture in the International Photography Awards for his current Crossing Paths portraiture project, an ongoing project which stands as a social document of the looks and styles of people on the streets of the UK at present. Niall kindly agreed to answer a few emailed questions from Document Scotland about the background to […]
Young Scottish photographer Robert Ormerod has had his ‘Doomen’ series, a project of portraits of pigeon keepers, published in The Guardian Weekend magazine. The images comprise a beautiful set of portraits, quiet moments of the men and women with their pigeons, a breed of pigeon known as Horseman Thief Pouters. The images were shot in […]
While traversing Scotland in pursuit of photographs for my long-term project, Scotia Nova, I often find myself in small, un-heralded towns looking for little moments which reveal a wider truth about modern Scotland. Towns like Shotts, Peterhead, Larbert, Wemyss Bay, solid working class towns with civic monuments and no-nonsense inhabitants. These settlements are representative of […]
Oscar Marzaroli‘s picture known as ‘The Castlemilk Lads’ is one of the iconic photographic images of Glasgow, and of Scotland. It was with great relish that Document Scotland recently read the story behind the image, a story which has gone untold until Peter Ross, journalist with the Scotland On Sunday newspaper, tracked down the three […]
Photographing conflict and post-conflict arenas is one of the most interesting sub-genres of documentary photography. There are many different approaches which make for outstanding viewing. From the monumental landscapes of Donovan Wylie and Simon Norfolk, depicting the theatre sets of war to the late Tim Hetherington’s claustrophobic and intimate moments with the dramatis personae, there […]
Colin McPherson We all get 15 minutes of fame, so the story goes. To stretch the Warholian reference, in 2005 I got the best part of half-an-hour starring on prime time television. Not strictly true, I admit. It was my photography and the subject of my work which captured the attention of the nation. I […]