“O, wad some Power the giftie gie usTo see oursels as others see us!” Those may be two of Robert Burns’ most oft-quoted lines, relecting that while Scotland has never been shy at looking in on itself, we have lacked the ability or awareness to view our nation from the perspective of outsiders. Document Scotland […]
Like most small towns in Scotland, Montrose in an unassuming place. A walk down the main thoroughfare reveals the usual selection of modern shops and stores, common to almost every community in the country. One type of business which seldom, if at all, graces our high streets these days is the photographic studio. But travel […]
I’m an island lover, certainly. Having visited and photographed many of Scotland’s islands, I had never been to Colonsay. It’s a place I’ve heard so much about from friends and colleagues. So it was a wonderful opportunity to visit for a Document Scotland project this May. My approach is always to gravitate towards people, after […]
In May 2022, Document Scotland visited the Inner Hebridean island of Colonsay where we staged a week-long series of events under the title Show Us Colonsay. These included a community participatory project open to all islanders to take part in, a series of collaborative portraits of people on Colonsay made by the Document Scotland photographers […]
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 […]
From the outside, the abbey at Nunraw looks unremarkable. A large, grey utilitarian building, perched on a hillside in a clearing in some pine trees deep in the Lammermuir hills. Built in 1969, its modernity gave few clues to the ancient customs, practices and rituals which took place daily behind closed doors. Sancta Maria Abbey […]
I first visited the island of Easdale in autumn 1989. I must admit, I’d never heard of the place, a small clump of rock protruding from the Atlantic a few miles south of Oban on the west coast. As we clambered aboard the passenger ferry with our provisions for a weekend away, I reached for […]
In 1995, I was walking with a friend on the vast, sandy beach at St. Cyrus, a few miles north of the town of Montrose on Scotland’s east coast, when I discovered salmon net fishing. Long lines of ropes and netting, suspended from poles dug into the soft sand, the waves softly lapping around them, […]
Football has always held a grim fascination for me. From my youth, spent grubbing around the fetid underbelly of Scottish soccer as a die-hard Meadowbank Thistle supporter, to my current incarnation as a documentary photographer and some-time chronicler of the national game, what interests me most is not the multi-million pound wasters or the diving […]
The photographers Bernd and Hilla Becher recorded many industrial structures across the landscape of Northern Europe. They would organise these images into grids of typologies. One of the structure types they chose to record was water towers. While the Bechers did visit Scotland I do not believe they photographed the many water towers in Glasgow, […]
Robert Birtles is a landscape and documentary photographer living in Dundee, Scotland. This current body of work by him examines the relationship between the landscapes, culture and traditions of the highland and coastal communities of Scotland. Robert is currently making photographs documenting the east-coast fishing port of Arbroath. The project explores the town’s romantic bond […]
Glasgow has long history of photographers chronicling life on its streets and in the schemes. Some have been restless natives, others interlopers. Some passed through, others stayed and got to know Scotland’s biggest city and most populous conurbation. Glasgow gives generously to visitors, ready with smiles and stories, yet half-hidden are the truths which underpin […]