Colonsay is a place I know well, so I was delighted when asked to take part in Show Us Colonsay…
I first went to Colonsay in 1993. At that time the ferry only went three times a week and the debate was whether to do Friday to Sunday (2 nights) or Sunday to Wednesday (3 nights). Colonsay is 8 miles long and, at its widest, only 3 miles wide.
“What will we do for three days there?”, I thought. But as a natural risk taker I decided to plump for latter: three whole days! 30 years later, I’ve still not had enough. (See Craig Easton’s earlier Colonsay photographs)
That very first visit led to a picture that I still love… the first picture I ever made on the island as I walked up to the hotel from the Sunday ferry, two sheep making their way along the road.
Thereafter I visited many times for family holidays and always took a camera. In the mid-nineties I made a series of portraits and b&w landscapes, so the chance to revisit as part of the Show Us Colonsay event supported by Creative Scotland and Street Level Photoworks, was not to be missed…
It was the chance to revisit some of those portraits I made back in the day. Sometimes it was the same person: Archie McConnell hasn’t aged a bit…
Other times it was the new incumbent of an essential island service: Keith Rutherford was the postie back in the 90s and would drive his Land Rover postbus across The Strand to Oransay. Today it’s ‘Robbie the Post’ who delivers the mail, still driving across The Strand, but no longer in a Land Rover and sadly no longer able to offer the postbus service (and I’m not entirely convinced that the Peugeot will survive the salt water in quite the same way as the old Landy)
Gavin is the new May McKinnon (I’ll be in trouble for saying that!) running The Pantry and still baking bread daily to May’s recipe. I hasten to add that Keith and May are still going strong, just no longer delivering and baking on a daily basis (though Keith is still behind the counter in the Post Office, as seen in Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert’s pictures) and both were on good form at our end-of-the-week community event.
I want to say a big thank you to my good friends Colin, Sophie and Jeremy for inviting me as a guest of Document Scotland for a week of photography, chat and community activity, and to take part in Show Us Colonsay, on the beautiful Hebridean island.