a picture of a woman kneeling with her two children in a Scottish island landscape

Sophie’s images from Fair Isle in the Telegraph Saturday Magazine

This Saturday images from Sophie’s trip to Fair Isle with fellow photographer Tessa Bunney will be published in the Telegraph Saturday Magazine. Tessa and Sophie travelled to Fair Isle in 2021 travelling by tiny plane to the island which is home to around 50 people. They took part in a residency on the island and stayed for a month, making images of the landscape, the residents and photographing a portrait of island life.

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Making Space - Photographs of Architecture exhibition at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh.

What’s On?

We’ve been running our Document Scotland Patreon supporters’ platform for over three years now. In that time, we have featured previews, reviews and interviews of our own photography and that of hitorical and contemporary photographers making work about Scotland. Becoming one of our patrons through the scheme unlocks all the stories and features we have […]

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Margaret Mitchell and Craig Easton Join Document Scotland

From the series Fisherwomen. © Craig Easton, all rights reserved. Collectives adapt and evolve. To survive and thrive, they must move with the times. When Document Scotland was established in 2012 by Sophie, Colin, Jeremy and Stephen, the immediate future of our nation was up for grabs, with the Independence referendum on the horizon. Our […]

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Return, O Backsliding Children by Sofia Conti

Sofia approached Document Scotland a while ago after completing her MA in Photography from Falmouth University. We caught up with her for a chat about her motivations for making the work and her various projects about Glasgow. DS: Hi Sofia – Thanks for sending us your work, tell us a little about the project SC: […]

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As Long As I Keep Busy, by Neil Goodwin

As Long as I Keep Busy, by photographer Neil Goodwin, is a social documentary about the lives of people living alone in the UK. Half of the project participants live in Scotland.   Living alone is a world-wide social phenomenon. In the UK, over eight million people live alone, almost 12 percent of the population, […]

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Show Us Colonsay by Sophie Gerrard

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 […]

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Colonsay Community Project

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 […]

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Show us Colonsay

Document Scotland launches Show Us Colonsay photography project – a community-focused photography event designed to engage, educate and excite. What: Show Us Colonsay Where: Colonsay and Oransay, Inner Hebrides When: 2-7 May, 2022 Show Us Colonsay is a community-focused photography event devised and delivered by Document Scotland in partnership with the Colonsay and Oransay Heritage […]

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Rachel Watt - Tree Planter - from the project TreeStory by Rob Brady

TreeStory: Re-wilding and Reforesting Scotland by Robert C. Brady

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 […]

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#RFC55 by Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert

You may have noticed in the last week or two that Rangers Football Club in Glasgow have won the Scottish Premiership, denying their arch rivals Celtic FC, on the other side of the city, the chance to win ten titles in a row. Around the city posters have gone up, and graffiti appearing, #RFC55, the […]

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Nunraw Abbey / Colin McPherson

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 […]

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Treasured Island / Colin McPherson

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 […]

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Salmon Netting / Colin McPherson

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, […]

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Fitba’ Crazy / Colin McPherson

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 […]

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Water Towers of Glasgow by Adam Fowler

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, […]

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Arbroath by Robert Birtles

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 […]

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Aye by Jörg Meier

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 […]

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Undertow and A9 by Frances Scott

Document Scotland is delighted to present work by Frances Scott entitled Undertow and A9. Frances is a photographer whose work Document Scotland have admired having enjoyed her book Undertow, published by Another Place Press, detailing her walks over the Orkney islands. A recently published ‘zine also by by the same publisher features a previous body […]

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Young Prospects by Heather Shuker

Document Scotland is delighted to showcase work by a fellow collective of photographers. The Shetland Project: Young Prospects by Heather Shuker was made in 2018 during a six-day trip to the Shetland Islands with the MAP6 photography collective. The Shetland Project was MAP6’s fourth project, following on from The Moscow Project, The Lithuania Project and […]

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Shetland Reconnaissance by Richard Chivers

Document Scotland is delighted to showcase Shetland Reconnaissance by Richard Chivers, one of the photographs from the MAP6 Collective. Here he explains a bit about the work. “The Shetland Islands geographical positioning as the UK’s furthest northerly landmass, has over the last 100 years, made it a key strategic observation point for the Military to […]

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Returning to Muirhouse: Martello Court by Paul S Smith

There is a lot of discussion at present about what our towns and cities will look and feel like in the post-COVID world. A death spiral of economic activity and loss of both permanent and transient populations, could lastingly render the centres barren wastelands, redundant in many different senses.

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The Youth House / Margaret Mitchell

Document Scotland is an admirer of Margaret Mitchell’s work here at Document Scotland, having worked alongside her and featured past projects of hers on the site from Family, In This Place and The Guisers. Margaret’s most recent body of work The Youth House, explores what happens when a community decides to empower its young people. […]

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Paisley. Part of the "Govanhill street level" exhibition by photographer Simon Murphy. 20 images will be displayed as part of a photo trail ,taking place between Aug 21st and Aug 31st 2020, to be displayed in windows of local businesses throughout the Govanhill International Festival.

Govanhill Street Level by Simon Murphy

Document Scotland is delighted to showcase the work of Glasgow-based photographer Simon Murphy titled Govanhill Street Level. Here, he gives an insight into the diverse and vibrant area of Govanhill with a series of portraits to be displayed in windows as part of a photo trail during the festival. Simon’s career has enabled him to […]

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Glasgow Women, by Nicola Stead

I had already noticed Nicola Stead’s portraits of Glasgow women on her website, stumbled into by chance following links and clicks, and I was taken by the simplicity of them, but also the strength of the women that showed through the great use of light, and sharpness of focus, as well as their expressions. Lovely portraits.

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Et in Arcadia Ego by Bill Duncan

I am always intrigued by creative people who manage to cross-pollinate their practice by involving other disciplines. I first came across the work of Angus-based writer Bill Duncan in the first years of this century, when he published a couple of wry, funny and beautifully-observed chronicles of Scottish life through the prism of Calvinism.

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Homeless in Covid, by Iain McLean

A few days back photographer Iain McLean told Colin and I that he’d been working on a series of portraits of homeless people, and assisted by the Simon Community Scotland. Today he shares with us some of the work, which is still ongoing and due to be exhibited in October, along with his thoughts on the project.

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The CoronaTapes by Holger Mohaupt

Document Scotland caught up with photographer Holger Mohaupt to talk to him about his work titled The CoronaTapes, a project made in response to the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic crisis. Walking with Gloves – A Pandemic Diary DS- How did the project come about?HM – The project wasn’t planned, it emerged from conversations with people in […]

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Document Scotland launches its Patreon initiative

DOCUMENT SCOTLAND SEEKS SUPPORT TO CONTINUE MAKING AND SHOWCASING THE BEST OF SCOTTISH DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY Document Scotland is launching an initiative to continue the work they do to support photography in Scotland. They are inviting individuals and organisations to become their patrons, and in doing so, putting the work of the collective on a sustainable […]

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The Story Behind the Photograph with Colin McPherson

Hailstones, Kinnaber, 2000. Photograph © Colin McPherson, all rights reserved. This Saturday, 30th May 2020, is the twentieth anniversary of the day I took a photograph that has come to symbolise my work and the project Catching the Tide, which documented Scotland’s last salmon net fishermen. To mark the occasion, Document Scotland is hosting a […]

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