We are delighted to announce that publisher Cafe Royal Books has produced a very special, limited edition box set of work by Document Scotland’s four photographers. Timed to coincide with our exhibition entitled The Ties That Bind, which opens at the end of September at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh, the compendium of […]
We are less than a month away from the launch of our forthcoming exhibition at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh, which opens on 26th September 2015. Curated by the gallery’s Curator of International Photography, Anne Lyden, The Ties That Bind brings together Document Scotland’s four photographers who each present projects which have been […]
During the spring and summer of 2014, I spent several months exploring the site of the former Ravenscraig steelworks in Lanarkshire. Once Europe’s largest hot strip mill, the British Steel plant employed thousands of men – and some women – in what was commonly regarded as Scotland’s industrial heart from when it opened in 1957 […]
It’s always a nice way to start the day when a beautiful new publication arrives on your doorstep. What made yesterday even better was that the publication was unexpected, and that Document Scotland are featured in it. The Bigger Picture: The Work of Impressions Gallery is a clever and comprehensive retrospective of Impressions Gallery. “Since […]
Fareweel to a’ oor Scottish fameFareweel oor ancient gloryFareweel even tae oor Scottish nameSae famed in martial storyNoo Sark runs o’er the Solway sandsTweed runs tae the oceanTae mark whereEngland’s province standsSuch a parcel o’ rogues in a nation – Robert Burns, 1791 In 2013, I began a twelve-month journey to trace Scotland’s border with […]
We delivered four lovely boxes of prints and a hard drive of digital files to St Andrews this week and are very pleased that Document Scotland’s work has now become one of the most recent acquisitions to the St Andrews University Special Collection. Document Scotland started working with Marc Boulay and the University of St […]
To most right-thinking people, all it involves is 22 men (or women) chasing an inflated leather sphere around a grassy field in a pointless physical activity of no consequence. To the rest of us it’s an obsession: football, otherwise known as our national sport. I’ve been bewitched by the sport since my dad took me […]
It was, we were constantly reminded in the media and elsewhere, a year like no other. Certainly, for those of us who wield a camera for a living or for enjoyment – or both – there was no shortage of subject matter on which we could focus our energies on in Scotland in 2014. From […]
September 2014. Highs, lows, an historical and unforgettable week for Scotland. Here are some of the images shot by Colin McPherson, Sophie Gerrard, Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert and Stephen McLaren in the lead up to and over the 18th September 2014. The world was watching, and so were we… (above: Alex Salmond and a supporter take a […]
We’re delighted to announce that to accompany our ‘Common Ground’ exhibition at Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow, we have self-published an 84-page colour publication, and one which we can offer exclusively for sale here. Including two photo essays from each Document Scotland member, Sophie Gerrard, Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert, Colin McPherson and Stephen McLaren, ‘Common Ground’ takes a look […]
To kick start our joining Common Ground show at Street Level Photoworks, with our friends from A Fine Beginning photo collective from Wales, we’re holding some folio review sessions on August 29th, from 2pm – 4pm. One photographer from Document Scotland will join one photographer from A Fine Beginning and together we can review your folios! […]
There’s a lot going on in DocuScot House, but we wanted to post a couple of items which our great colleagues of Impressions Gallery have kindly made and posted to promote our Beyond The Border show at Impressions, which is running at the gallery until 27th September…. For some background reading, to give the viewers of […]
This important and timely exhibition showcases groundbreaking new work from some of Wales and Scotland’s contemporary photographers. Document Scotland, formed in 2012 by Colin McPherson, Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert, Sophie Gerrard and Stephen McLaren, are responding to the global audience looking at Scotland at this, one of the most important times in the country’s history. Formed in […]
Last weekend, on an incredibly hot and sunny day in Bradford, Document Scotland took part in a busy and successful day of portfolio reviews and talks at Impressions Gallery as part of Beyond The Border: New Contemporary Photography from Scotland. Sophie, Colin and Jeremy joined the team at Impressions to talk to a number of talented […]
Document Scotland are hitting the road next month. We are heading to the Highlands and Argyll to host the first of a series of four salon events across the country which will present the work we will be showing at our forthcoming exhibition at Street Level Photoworks in Glasgow. There will be presentations in person […]
Document Scotland are hitting the road next month. We are heading to the Highlands and Argyll to host the first of a series of four salon events across the country which will present the work we will be showing at our forthcoming exhibition at Street Level Photoworks in Glasgow. There will be presentations in person […]
We at Document Scotland love collaborations! So, when the opportunity presented itself to work together with the Welsh photography collective A Fine Beginning, we jumped at the chance. Late last year, we were approached by Malcolm Dickson, director of Street Level Photoworks with the offer of an exhibition at his acclaimed gallery in Glasgow. After […]
The opening evening of Beyond The Border at Impressions Gallery in Bradford on Thursday 3rd July was a great success, thank you all so much for coming. We were delighted to see so many new and familiar faces there, enjoying the photography, the conversation, the wine and of course, the Tunnock’s Caramel Wafers. Document Scotland […]
If not the quite centre of the universe, Stirling felt like the place to be in Scotland this weekend. On Friday evening, Pipefest kicked three days of festivities, with around 1600 pipers and other musicians from around the world marching from the castle through the city’s streets. The following day, Bannockburn Live competed for attention […]
We’ve been furiously checking prints, sending work to the framers, proofing text, editing, making phonecalls, and finishing long term projects shot over the last year or more in preparation for our group show, Beyond The Border: New Contemporary Photography from Scotland at Impressions Gallery in Bradford. We are delighted to invite you to the opening […]
We are still buzzing after such an interesting, creative and energetic evening at The Scottish National Portrait Gallery last night for Document Scotland’s 1st ever portrait event “Face To Face: The Portrait in Photography Today”. Thank you to the photographers which Document Scotland invited to take part along side us, Ben Roberts, Arpita Shah, Emily […]
So folks, we are now very excited to confirm the following details about the work being presented at our event Face To Face: The Portrait In Photography Today at The Scottish National Portrait Gallery on the 14th May 2014. Colin McPherson will present a short multimedia entitled ‘In the Company of Strangers’ in which he […]
We are delighted to announce a partnership with the Scotland’s oldest university that will see our photography become part of one of country’s most important photographic archives. This new collaboration between the University of St Andrews and Document Scotland will unite some of the oldest photographs in Scotland with contemporary documentary images. The initiative will […]
Our busy year of events has begun: an exhibition of work by Document Scotland opened earlier this month at the Scotland House Conference Centre in Brussels. Entitled Five by Four, the show comprises separate bodies of work from the four Document Scotland photographers, each of which were responding to themes and ideas behind the Scottish […]
After a year exploring Scotland’s 96-mile border with England, Document Scotland’s Colin McPherson finally reached the point of no return. Here he explains some of the discoveries he made during his journey from the Sark to the sea. “Photographers love journeys. From its earliest history, our predecessors found new locations, often in far-off lands, to […]
We’re delighted to announce that we have begun working with Anne McNeill, and her colleagues, at Impressions Gallery, Bradford, in producing a show of our photography entitled ‘Beyond The Border’. The show will open to the public on July 1st, and there will be an opening night soiree on July 3rd. You’re all invited! Last […]
To celebrate the Chinese New Year we’ve decided to make a small compendium of photographs taken by the four of us, Sophie, Colin, Stephen, and Jeremy, in Beijing over the past two years. You can download, free of charge, the pdf of work via the following link. Download ‘DOC004: Document Scotland in Beijing’ here. Document […]
No, it’s not the members of Document Scotland lining up for their annual photograph but rather War, Death, Pestilence, Famine, otherwise known as the Four Dwarfmen of the Apocalypse, who featured in the Easdale community pantomime held on the tiny island in Argyll just after the New Year took shape and photographed by Colin McPherson. Unlike […]
Although it has been a number of years since Document Scotland’s Colin McPherson produced the main body of work in his Catching the Tide series, the photographs of his long-term project documenting the lives of Scotland’s remaining salmon net fishermen continue to be published. A new book entitled The Salmon Fishers – a history of […]
A week, as the old saying goes, is a long time in politics. But how do we measure 18 years? On another of many historic days in modern Scottish politics, the government of our devolved parliament today launches its White Paper, setting out a prospectus for an independent Scotland. Spool back almost exactly 18 years […]
It is with great pride that today we launch our third Document Scotland publication. Following on from our two acclaimed and fast-selling newspapers, launched over the last year, we bring you DOC003. We promised you something different this time and are confident this won’t disappoint. DOC003 is a digital publication – otherwise known as a […]
Saturday 21st September, 2013: thousands come to march in support of a ‘yes’ vote in the following year’s Independence referendum. Edinburgh provides the venue and historic backdrop for this milestone event. Document Scotland photographers Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert and Colin McPherson were on hand to document the day. As the crowds gathered in the High Street, so […]
Edinburgh during the festival is a lively place, full of energy, excitement and a melting pot of ideas, inspiration and passion. What better reason to invite friends and colleagues to an evening of Scottish photography, multimedia and conversation at Stills Gallery, Scotland’s centre for photography in the heart of the city. All of us at […]
Document Scotland was delighted to receive an invitation from the organisers of the Entre Margens project to attend a three-day conference last weekend in the beautiful Portugese city of Porto. Entre Margens (between river banks) is a project of artistic intervention in the historical towns and villages of several locations in the Douro region, with […]
As the old maxim in publishing goes, celebrity sells. So I was delighted to encounter Rod Stewart on a scrubby patch of land, a few short yards inside Scotland. Not the real McCoy, of course, but an invocation to attend a musical tribute to the great Jockney singer at some nearby watering hole. An evening […]
Document Scotland were delighted to be interviewed by The Dundee Courier about the exhibition ‘Seeing Ourselves’. Stephen spoke with Jennifer McLaren and explained a little about what brought us together, our aims and our passions and how we curated the exhibition.
It’s always nice to go back to where things begun. One year ago, Document Scotland was conceived in Beijing and born in Scotland. When Colin, Jeremy and Stephen travelled to China last year on assignment together, little did they think they would come back as a collective. One of the pivotal moments of the visit […]
Document Scotland are delighted to announce that to coincide with our first collaborative group exhibition, ‘Seeing Ourselves’, we’ve published a newspaper showcasing the fine documentary photography work from the show. A certain amount of the papers will be available for free at the gallery and exhibition, to thank you for making the effort to come […]
Colin McPherson, Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert and Sophie Gerrard of Document Scotland, will soon be in China photographing on assignment and whilst there have the pleasure of presenting Scottish documentary photography to a wider audience by holding a talk at the Three Shadows Photography Art Centre in Beijing, on May 29th. The talk will present the work […]
PRESS RELEASENo embargo Document Scotland is proud and delighted to announce the date of our first collaborative group exhibition. ‘Seeing Ourselves’ will open at FOTOSPACE Gallery, Fife on June 3, 2013, and feature work by 10 leading Scottish photographers. The show has been curated by Document Scotland, in association with Colin Cavers of the Fife […]