During these past few months of lockdown, working at home and playing podcasts I listened to photographer Danny North speaking on Grant Scott’s UN of Photography weekly podcast discussing What Does Photography Mean To You? I hadn’t come across Danny’s work before, but in the podcast Danny mentions some photography from the island of Eigg in the Hebrides, and I was intrigued enough to go find Danny’s website and look at the images from his project, entitled As I Found Her.
(Listen to Document Scotland’s Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert and Colin McPherson discussing their thoughts on What Does Photography Mean To You?)
The work, shot a couple of years back, is the result of four trips to the island by Danny North, working slowly with medium format film to produce a series of portraits of the island. The island, as Danny tells us, is popular with photographers visiting to make quick projects, and this was something he was keen to avoid. Over the numerous trips, he befriended the islanders, and through his personal photography produced a beautiful, empathetic and compassionate portrait of life in the island community.
We recently had the please of chatting to Danny about the work, and in this 30-minute interview, one of many such interviews on our supporter’s site, you can hear him tell the highly entertaining, in parts amusing, and in parts quite emotional, story of the project, how it came about, how he started it, and what it means to him. Not only is it a journey to the Hebrides, but Danny describes how the undertaking of the photography became a highly personal journey back to falling in love with photography for himself.
We’d like to thank Danny for allowing us to share his photography from island of Eigg, and for the chance to hear the stories behind the portraits. – Jeremy.
All images Copyright © Danny North 2016.
