Document Scotland has invited our student placements from Edinburgh Napier University to write up some of the exhibitions they’ve been enjoying recently. Following on from Taylor Cowe’s review of New Contemporaries at Studies in Photography, our current placement, Molly Fisher, visited Street Level Photoworks to view their current exhibitions.

Both The Scene from Within and Glaswegians are on until 19th October 2025. The offsite exhibition A Window on Glasgow, which can be seen at Trongate 103, ends on 5th October.

Street Level Photoworks’ latest exhibitions combine work from ‘The Scene from Within’ and ‘Glaswegians’. The diverse programme brings together photography from the 1970s, 80s and 90s alongside more recent work. Images across the two gallery rooms combine overarching themes of culture and community within Glasgow through these different time periods. Both exhibitions bring together work from several photographers and artists to form a politically engaged and culturally significant programme.

‘The Scene from Within’ is a combination of work from four photographers: Gerry D’Ambrosio, Mandy Edwards, Keith Ingham & Malcolm Hill, the latter two as members of the Partick Camera Club. Keith Ingham & Malcolm Hill’s photographs are from the late 70s, part of a survey of The Calton, an area that was due for demolition at that time. Their combined work explores themes of redevelopment whilst capturing places and people before they were lost in time.

Gerry D’Ambrosio’s work focuses primarily on The Jungle, a pub in the area at the time that was due to be demolished. The images although mostly black and white, give a colourful view on the bright characters that could be found in the pub.

Mandy Edwards’ work consists of portraits of shopkeepers and traders in the East end of Glasgow over a 15-year period. In 2010, Edwards photographed local traders as the 2014 Commonwealth Games neared and brought a threat of redevelopment to the area. Edwards has since revisited the project recently to create more portraits ahead of the 2026 Commonwealth Games. The images ask us to reflect on how situations have changed and continue to change.

The Glaswegians series was created through the Cranhill Arts Project, a community-led arts organisation based in Cranhill in Glasgow’s east end. Glaswegians consists of work from 22 local people involved in the project and looks at life in Glasgow between 1989 and 1993. The images explore themes of family, youth, work and community. Coming from the community itself, the work gives an honest view of life in Glasgow at the time.

The exhibition also includes large-scale screen-printed posters created by Alistair McCallum and Jane Carroll at Cranhill Arts appeared around Glasgow in the same era as the community imagery. The colourful posters covered campaigns, protests and benefit gigs and help to give context on the social climate and culture of that period.

As an extension of the theme at Street Level, A Window on Glasgow is on show at Trongate 103 in an off-site exhibition that combines portrait and landscape work by photographers including Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert, Chris Leslie and David Gillanders.

A Window on Glasgow at Trongate 103.

Thank you to Molly for reviewing the exhibitions, her work can be seen in this previous post where she discusses her practice. The Scene from Within and Glaswegians run at Street Level Photoworks until 19 October 2025, with the offsite show A Window on Glasgow at Trongate 103 continuing until 5 October 2025.