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 […]
Starting a new series is always a tentative process: The fulfilment of an idea that may have been gathering momentum in a closet somewhere in a corner of your mind. Will a story translate from idea form to visual reality? Will I waste my time working on something that may lead to nothing? The night […]
It was the second Rangers away game I’d been to for my, at that time, new project ‘Life In The 3rd’. I wished to follow Rangers FC as they travelled around the country and through the Scottish footballing 3rd Division, taking in the small towns and lesser stadiums of the land. I’d just recently returned […]
“I’m are very pleased to announce that today Cafe Royal Books, run and published by Craig Atkinson, have published a little limited edition (of 150) ‘zine book of my Common Riding photographs. All the images were shot in 2000, in the Scottish Borders, and 14 of them form the 28page black and white ‘zine. All […]
“On Twitter and the BBC this morning I read that Kay Matheson, one of the four students whom on Christmas Day 1950 liberated the Stone of Destiny from it’s position in Westminster Abbey, had passed away aged 84. The story of Kay Matheson, and her three accomplices Ian Hamilton, Gavin Vernon and Alan Stuart, is […]
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 had been a long day. I had started early, going straight to Home-Start Levenmouth offices and interviewing all who worked there. It was just before Christmas and everyone was running around trying to organise the bags of presents which had been donated. Never ending lists filled with children’s names were being checked off and […]
The British Journal of Photography has published online an article they’ve written about photographers working in collectives, and how strength of numbers can help you along in the turbulent photography market. Sophie Gerrard spoke on Document Scotland’s behalf to explain a little about why our collective was formed and how it works. You can read […]
(c) Sarah Fishlock, 2013, All Right Reserved As one might expect when photographing Iraqis who were resettled in Glasgow after having worked with the British government and forces in Iraq, the security of my subjects was paramount. I learned to make alternative portraits – images that did not explicitly reveal faces or identifying features, but […]
As our inaugural Document Scotland exhibition, “Seeing Ourselves”, opens this week in Glenrothes, we are featuring a blog each week for the duration of the exhibition from all contributing photographers. The feature is called, “Why I Took this Picture”, and needs no further explanation. First-up, Stephen McLaren, on his photograph, “Dolly”. “When the weather disappoints […]
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 […]
E-Wasteland is a project which Sophie Gerrard undertook in India to highlight the problems created by the 20-50 million tons of electronic waste known as “e-waste” generated annually worldwide. In Europe and the US, we throw away an old computer, on average, every 2 years. In the US for every new computer bought, an old […]
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 […]
Margaret Thatcher‘s passing in April 2013 brought to an end the life of one of the most controversial and influential post-War British politicians. The Conservative leader, who had served as Prime Minister from 1979 until being deposed by her own party in 1990, divided opinion. What cannot be doubted, is that she changed society and […]
Renowned London-based editorial and reportage photographer David Levenson has had a small zine published via Cafe Royal Books, showcasing his photographs of the Burry Man tradition in South Queensferry, Scotland. We thought it a great little set of images, and nice to see archive work finding new uses. We asked David via email if he’d be […]
Friend of Document Scotland Colin Templeton has a photography show beginning this week, and we hope you can show support for it, and pay it a visit during it’s duration of 2nd -25th February, at the Glasgow Art Club, 185 Bath Street, Glasgow. More information can be found on the Glasgow Art Club website. You […]
In 2013, Colin McPherson looked back at a moment in time 20 years previously, and delved into his archive of photographs to show some contrasting sides to Auld Reekie, his home city of Edinburgh. Here he explains more about the process: “The portfolio of images Document Scotland presented last week to mark the 20th anniversary […]
The mission: put down the bevy, pick-up the camera and bring a bit of festive cheer by photographing Scotland leaving 2012 behind. Witness the renewal of friendships, goodwill being shown to neighbours and strangers alike, and reflect a desire for better times ahead. Document Scotland wishes all our colleagues and the wider Scottish photography community […]
On a brilliantly bright, icy cold, winter Sunday afternoon recently I caught up with Giulietta Verdon Roe over coffee and cake. I knew that Giulietta had made several visits to the remote Scottish island of North Ronaldsay over a number of years to create a documentary photographic project of the population and character of the island. […]
In honour of Scotland’s patron saint and also of Document Scotland’s first ever St. Andrew’s Day together as a collective in 2012, we decided to undertake a little group project. Each of our photographers took a wander with our cameras to see what was happening in our neighbourhoods, we found ceilidhs, balls and festivities. Some […]
How many archives have you ever come across that document one area of a country, that span 112 years, and from which all the images were shot by three generations of photographers from the same family ? Not many we expect. Is it even possible you wonder. But indeed, as great as it sounds, there […]
The Jill Todd Photographic Award has been set up to promote new photography in Scotland and will stage its inaugural event at Whitespace (formerly Doggerfisher Gallery) in Edinburgh between the 2-11th November 2012. Three winners have been selected from an open submission to the JTPA, and their work will be showcased in the gallery and […]
It’s evening, autumn 2012, and I’m at the desk, digging back through the hard-drive of my memory, looking for an evening some thirteen years that is filed away in some dark corner. Henri Cartier-Bresson, Edinburgh, 1999. Eve Arnold too. I do have memories… I also have photographs. Can I trust either? Much as I love […]
In 2012, Glasgow Rangers Football Club were wound up and relegated. They started again at the bottom of Scottish Football League. Document Scotland’s Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert followed te team as they embarked on life in the Third Division. ‘These images are part of an ongoing project, a document of an unusual, exciting and historically unprecedented year […]
“In the shade of St. Andrew’s House the press awaited the appearance of, and handshake between, Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond and British Prime Minister David Cameron. The cold seeped to the marrow of journalists and photographers, as the police and politician’s aides kept us all behind barriers. With little fanfare, and with the lone […]
The Dunes by Sophie Gerrard is her landmark series which looked at the environmental and personal challenges and costs a community endured as they faced up to a multi-million pound development which would alter their lives forever. “Sophie Gerrard’s project The Dunes, is about a Site of Scientific Interest in Aberdeenshire that Donald Trump has […]
Paul Strand‘s book of Hebridean photographs, ‘Tir a’Mhurian‘, was published fifty years ago this month. In The Guardian’s Scottish Blog Fraser MacDonald, of Edinburgh university, reviews it’s relevance and the background to Strand’s project. By kind permission of Fraser MacDonald, and The Guardian we republish his article here. Paul Strand’s Hebrides: subtle, sensitive with a dash […]
Scottish photographer Glyn Satterley has a new book, ‘Going To The Hill, Life On The Scottish Sporting Estates’, out tomorrow. Here at Document Scotland we eagerly look forward to seeing it. The publisher describes Glyn’s new book as “a celebration of Scotland’s rich sporting heritage by internationally acclaimed photographer Glyn Satterley. This is the sequel to […]
Last week, the island of Easdale was in the news about a threat to a world-class sporting event held on its square mile of craggy slate anchored off the Argyll coast. Apparently the island’s owner wanted to cancel the island’s premier sporting event of the season, the World Stone Skimming Championships, for not providing a […]
Young Scottish photographer Robert Ormerod has had his ‘Doomen’ series, a project of portraits of pigeon keepers, published in The Guardian Weekend magazine. The images comprise a beautiful set of portraits, quiet moments of the men and women with their pigeons, a breed of pigeon known as Horseman Thief Pouters. The images were shot in […]
In 2004, Document Scotland photographer Colin McPherson visited the newly-built Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood before it opened. Here he explains the details behind the commission: “Exactly one month before its official Royal opening in September 2004, I was granted a preview of the newly-completed Scots Parliament building in Edinburgh, forever after to be known […]
Easily the most pleasurable aspect of working on assignment as a documentary photographer is meeting and getting to know the people you photograph. One of my most memorable experiences was being commissioned to travel to the Hebridean island of Eigg to do a profile of the island’s postman, John Cormack. Like the protagonists in the […]
Photographing conflict and post-conflict arenas is one of the most interesting sub-genres of documentary photography. There are many different approaches which make for outstanding viewing. From the monumental landscapes of Donovan Wylie and Simon Norfolk, depicting the theatre sets of war to the late Tim Hetherington’s claustrophobic and intimate moments with the dramatis personae, there […]
In all my years working as an editorial photographer in Scotland I always tried to stay away from shooting the obligatory football matches. It isn’t that I didn’t like football, or didn’t follow the results, just that I had no desire to sit and photograph football games on Saturday afternoons or on wet Wednesday nights. […]
Document Scotland photographer Colin McPherson presents a portfolio of monochrome images entitled Working Way Out West, which looks at aspects of life on the western fringes of Scotland. “I’ve been fortunate to spend much of my working life as a photographer on Scotland’s long and rugged west coast. Often described inaccurately as ‘remote’ (from where?) […]
From 1996, Document Scotland photographer Colin McPherson spent a number of years looking at the lives of Scotland’s Tibetan clan, Buddhist communities who were based at locations around the country. The work has been published at home and abroad. Here he reflects on the work. “My first encounter with Scotland’s clan of Tibetan monks and […]