one hundred weeks of scotland

Week Twenty Nine

Actress Shonagh Price is the first image from this week. Taken at Gullane beach on a perfect May morning this photo forms part of a series of images I have been working on entitled ‘Magnetic North’, a project in which I am photographing artists, actors, writers etc.

The next image is at the very beginning of the old drovers route which leads to Bealach na Bà (The Pass of the Cattle) and is the notorious road that hairpins terrifyingly over the mountains to Applecross, in Wester Ross. The road is more reminiscent of the Swiss Alps as it switchbacks wildly over the Applecross peninsula before descending, thankfully more gently, into the community of Applecross. Until the late 20^th century this was the only route in or out of the village, and was completely impassable in winter weather. I first drove this road a few years ago in an old 1970s Volkwagen Type 2 campervan (now sadly sold) with a very dodgy clutch – there are no photos from the ascent as my hands were glued, white-knuckled, to the steering wheel. With the accelerator pedal pressed to the floor I crawled up the slope, praying nothing was coming down because if I had stopped I would never have started again…

The third image from this week is of Malcolm F, and forms part of another ongoing series of images ‘This Happy Breed – at home and work in Scotland’ which will be exhibited either later this year or early 2014.

And finally, the grave of Rob Roy McGregor (more correctly Red Robert), in Balquhidder. I have a small confession to make in that, even though I have a degree in History I know almost nothing of Rob Roy. To be honest, until a few years ago I couldn’t have told you for sure if he was real or imaginary. A sorry state of affairs indeed. Anyway as I stood next to his grave on a chill spring morning in the lovely Stirlingshire countryside he felt real enough, this Jacobite soldier who, in later life, would be unfairly branded an outlaw (legend has it he lost his cattle and money to an untrustworthy cattleman and defaulted on his debts as a result) before being eventually pardoned by George I. He died in 1734 and shares his grave, in the old churchyard in Balquhidder with his wife Mary and his sons Robert & Coll. His name lives on though in popular fiction, poetry, film, music and best of all, a whisky-based cocktail.

Week Twenty Eight

This week I have gone for a selection of images rather than images linked to a theme, as in the last two weeks. The first image is a portrait I like very much, of Archimandrite Raphael Pavouris of the Greek Orthodox Church of St Andrews, based in Edinburgh. The actual photograph was taken in the Pittencrieff Park Pavilion in Dunfermline at an event I was covering for the Scottish Churches Trust, and as soon as I saw him I knew I had to take his photo.

Image two is taken in a café in Callander and again it is an image I am very fond of. I like the way the man is posed and the bright red frame in the image really makes the photo stand out.

The third image makes me laugh. This was the last day of school for Sixth Year pupils before exam leave begins and consequently the last day when a lot of the kids would be together as a group. Such a special time as they stand on the edge of the future and the possibilities for them are unlimited. And a blow-up doll thrown in for good measure…

Finally an image I had wanted to include for a while but never managed to get the proper weather or time to take a decent shot. This is the velodrome at Meadowbank in Edinburgh and one of its claims to fame is that this is where Sir Chris Hoy really began his cycling career before going on to dominate the sport. With the new indoor state-of-the-art velodrome recently opened in Glasgow in time for next years Commonwealth Games the future for this old track is unsure, although the racing surface has been newly coated in the last few days so it looks like there is plenty of life in it yet. As with old football grounds, I love the ramshackle nature of the track which although looking a bit past its sell by date is full of character and hopefully keeps going for years to come.

Week Twenty Seven

Beltane

For millennia the Celtic nations of the north had observed the festival of Beltane, or “Bright Fire”. Slowly, as Christianity crept though the dark woods, valleys and rivers of wild Europe the old gods stepped aside in favour of the new. They lingered on at the edges of the continent in a more symbolic form and in Scotland the last public Beltane Fires would, by the mid-to-late nineteenth century, flicker and die.

As is often the way, what was will be again and in 1988 the Beltane fire came to life once more, on Calton Hill in Edinburgh. This was a small gathering of a handful of performers watched by no more than 100 spectators. As the years have passed the festival has grown and now hundreds of performers tell the Beltane story to thousands of spectators.

What has not changed is the central meaning of Beltane – that of rebirth and the welcoming of the summer after the long hard struggle of winter. The lighting of the Beltane fires on the 1^st of May would welcome the growing power of the sun and celebrate a sense of renewal and cleansing. This is symbolised by the procession of the May Queen and the death and rebirth of the Green Man.

This years Beltane took place on a beautiful though chill evening on April 30^th, the eve of summer and as ever the event was a riot of colour and fire. As the sun sank below the horizon it truly felt as though the dark of winter had been vanquished, replaced by the soft warmth of summer.

When I woke up the next morning I realised it hadn’t.

Week Twenty Six

It is often the case that the hardest place to photograph is the place where you live. I live in Edinburgh, which is without doubt one of the loveliest cities of them all, yet I find it almost impossible to photograph. I am so used to the city’s effortless Northern beauty that I rarely see it anymore and it just becomes commonplace. A few years ago I helped out a New York photographer who was doing a photo essay on James Boswell. It was a strange feeling seeing the city through her eyes as everywhere she turned she saw incredible potential shots whereas I just saw the streets of the town I lived in. This is why I love visiting other places. I become the outsider seeing things that the locals take for granted.

I had a photoshoot this week in Hawick, a town I had previously never visited, and had a few hours to spare after the shoot. As I wandered through the town I saw countless images leap out at me and spent a very pleasant afternoon snapping away. At one point some school kids came up to me as I was photographing a wall below a church (image one in this weeks photos) and they asked why I was photographing something so boring. I forget what I replied but it must have been incredibly clever & witty as they wandered off laughing, happily throwing things at me.

So this weeks images are all from Hawick. I really took a shine to the place. It is a proper small town, part pretty, part functional and with a real sense of a faded industrial past that is being replaced by a renewed sense of dynamism.

It is funny how sometimes you have to travel miles and miles just to see what is right in front of your eyes. Worth it too.

 

 

Week Twenty Five

This week’s first image is a lookalike of the great steel-man and philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie, taken at The National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh. In 1913 Carnegie set up a trust to allocate funds for his philanthropic enterprises. This year The Carnegie UK Trust celebrates its centenary and to mark this occasion a book, ‘Pioneering Philanthropy’ by Liz Macdonald, was launched charting the first one hundred years of the trusts activities.  Born in Dunfermline in 1835, Carnegie emigrated to the United States when he was 13 years old, and would spend his life becoming one of the richest men ever to have lived, and then the becoming the worlds greatest philanthropist by giving it all away again. Carnegie believed that the first third of ones life should be spent in education, the next third accumulating as much wealth as possible and the final third should be spent giving that wealth away. The image is a publicity still for the launch of the book.

In the second image this week a large public display of Tai Chi takes place on a beautiful spring day, one of the first of the year where it felt like the warmth was returning. To watch such a display of dozens of individuals moving in such a slow, measured and graceful way was incredibly impressive and also wonderfully peaceful. It really felt that, finally after being in the grip of winter for so long, colour was beginning to return to the world and people were returning to the outdoors.

Finally, in the third image, a seaplane takes off, roaring down the water and shattering the quiet of Loch Voil in the Trossachs. I had been driving along the minor road that twisted and coiled along the northern edge of the loch when suddenly out of the corner of my eye I caught sight of the plane approaching along the loch. I had seconds to pull over and grab my camera before the plane disappeared behind some trees and flew off into a clear blue sky. It pays to always have a camera handy…

Week Twenty Four

Margaret Thatcher’s death is the story that dominated all others this week. I wasn’t sure whether to do anything on it and then on reflection decided it was just too big a story to ignore. Although she had no links to Scotland her policies had, in the opinion of many, disastrous effects on the country and are still being felt even now. I have used two images to illustrate it. The first was taken very shortly after her death was announced, in a pub in the centre of Edinburgh and reflects how most news stories are broken and read these days. The other image is an interesting one – The Sun, to me, is absolutely synonymous with the Thatcher years. It seemed to be the voice of the brash, individualistic, get-rich-quick 1980s and was a huge supporter of Thatcher, and her governments. That is why the way they chose to report her death surprised me a little. I would have expected The Sun, of all the tabloid newspapers to be the most gushing in their praise, whereas in the end even her death is nothing more than a vaguely rhythmic headline in a grubby newspaper.

My third image this week is of a dinner in The Signet Library in Edinburgh. Dating from 1822 the Signet Library was built for the visit of George IV to Edinburgh and he described the upper library (the one pictured) as ‘the finest drawing room in Europe’. The library is home to the Society of Writers to her Majesty’s Signet (The WS Society) an association of Scottish lawyers and one of the oldest professional bodies in the world. The origins of the WS Society lie in the 15th century as the “writers” of documents sealed with “the Signet”, the private seal of the Scottish kings – members are known as “Writers to the Signet” or “WS”. It is a stunningly beautiful, and incredibly atmospheric building.

My next image, Rajiv, The Man in the Corner Shop is part of my series ‘This Happy Breed - at Home and at Work in Scotland’ and shows a typical scene in a local shop. How often when we were kids did we run to such places clutching 10p and trying to get as many penny chews and sweets as we could…

Week Twenty Three

Like so many people I often pass the Borders by, heading southwards or northwards. Yet when I do stop, and again like many people, I find it one of the most beautiful parts of Scotland. Even then it is an area of the country I know so little about, other than the old tales of Reivers and Border Kings. I had been to Melrose & Galashiels only once before even though each town is barely 40 miles from my home. I wanted images of these places that were not the average touristy shots but more in keeping with the kind of street photography that is seen more in large urban conurbations. All I can say is that if I lived in Melrose I think I would be monstrously fat. I don’t think I have ever seen so many cafes and food shops in so small a place and it says much for the self-control of the locals that they remain so trim.

I had been dragging the dog past numerous foody smelling doorways for quite a while trying to find something to photograph without success and was almost about to pack it in when, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted an old petrol pump up an alleyway leading to a goods yard. I had hit the motherlode. There is something about these old pumps that I am completely (and worryingly) in love with. To find one nowadays is so rare – I last saw one ten years ago in a small village high on a windy plateau in southern France. I have even trawled the internet trying to locate some (I believe there are a couple somewhere in Northern Scotland). And here one was, tucked away just off the main street in Melrose. For me this was Petrol Pump Pornography.

After taking far, far too many images of the damn thing, and trying convince myself that being obsessed with ancient fuel dispensing devices was perfectly normal I spotted a couple of Melrose lads eating their lunch on a bench, and directly opposite them, a window display so pleasant that even a vegetarian like myself had to be led, struggling, away from.

After Melrose I drove on to Selkirk and then retraced my steps to Galashiels. I had been here once before to take photographs in the wonderful School of Textile & Design but had no memory of the enormous Tesco’s that seemed to have descended, mothership-like, into the heart of the town. My final image for this week, the girls in the baguette shop, is again food related. A hungry lot, these borderers.

Week Twenty Two 

Images one and two – North Berwick

On a bitterly cold but diamond bright spring day I headed to North Berwick, one of my favourite places in Scotland. As it was the school holidays there were lots of children around and I managed to get a few good shots. My favourites are definitely these two – The Man In The Ice-Cream Van was taking a well-earned break after serving a huge group of toddlers, and the little boy with the ice-cream cone sums up spring in Scotland for me – the faint promise of better days, yet still in need of a duffle coat.

Images three and four – The Borders Railway

It was 50 years ago this week that Dr Beeching published his report that slashed the UK railway network. One high profile casualty was the Waverley line that ran from Edinburgh through the Scottish borders to Carlisle. Now work is under way to reopen much of this historic line with services due to begin in 2015 between Edinburgh Waverley and Tweedbank. It will be the longest new domestic railway built in Britain in over a century.

I will be documenting the progress of the railway over the next two years and these initial images were taken on the site of the old Monktonhall Colliery in Midlothian. Much mining remediation work is under way here to comply with strict environmental and safety regulations. In these images of the Monktonhall area, contractor Bam have begun moving large quantities of material to construct a new railway cutting and a new station, Shawfair. Here between the A1 and the city bypass the railway is on a new alignment while the remainder will follow the historic Waverley line to Tweedbank. 

I have always been very interested in Railways - not in the trains that run, but in the history, the people, and the architecture of railways.I will be combining this project with ‘One Hundred Weeks of Scotland’ so more images will appear as the work continues.

Week Twenty One

The South

The Mull of Galloway, the most southerly point on the Scottish mainland.

My previous trips to the most northerly and most westerly points on the mainland had taken place in beautiful winter weather. Ironically the most southerly point on the Scottish mainland was shrouded in mist, and lashed with freezing needles of rain on the day I visited. Photography-wise this was not a problem as extremes of weather often contribute to a strong image. It was me who suffered, picking my way down a treacherous coastal trail to the foghorn, which lies just above the most southerly point.

The first image is taken from high up near the lighthouse and shows the foghorn, surrounded by heavy seas. A slow descent then followed before image two which was taken from the foghorn looking down to what, as far as I can tell, is exactly the southernmost point.

Image three is my favourite shot of the day – the weather had cleared and brightened a little and I had scrambled back to the top of the cliffs. On the seaward side of the lighthouse is a walled garden that falls away toward the cliffs and this is the gate that leads into it. The gate points roughly SSW and if my calculations are correct if you were to walk through this gate and carry on in a straight line you would not make landfall again until you reached the Antarctic Peninsula, 650 miles south of the tip of South America. I didn’t fancy the swim.

Just North of the Mull of Galloway Lighthouse is the town of Drummore, which boasts the most southerly shop in Scotland (image 4) and just outside Drummore at New England Bay is possibly the country’s most southerly public toilet block - perfect in its symmetry and utilitarianism. (image 5)

Finally, just before I left to head north, and home once more, the beach at New England Bay. This was shot with a long exposure to give it a nice dreamlike quality. (Image 6)

Week Twenty

Image One – Paul, Tattoo Artist, Partick

I had an hour to spare when I was in Glasgow recently and thought I would head off with my camera. I was in Partick so wandered along the Dumbarton Road to see what I could get. I find with street photography that the smaller camera I have the better, as essentially I want to be as inconspicuous as possible. I had Molly my black Labrador with me as well which helps as she is always stopping to sniff things which can be great cover to grab a candid shot. Ironically this shot of Paul, outside his shop Kaya Tattoos, was one where I actually asked his permission. I had walked past the shop and saw him standing in the doorway and thought it would be too good to miss so went back and asked if I could take his photo. He couldn’t have been nicer about it and I knew I had the shot I wanted.

It started to rain and I went home.

 

Image Two – Cockenzie Power Station

It has dominated the East Lothian skyline since 1967 and closed down for the last time on Friday the 15^th March. Some say it is an eyesore and I probably wouldn’t want to live next door to it, but I have always really quite liked it. Plans are underway to convert it to a gas-fired power station, and whether this will entail it being demolished and rebuilt I am not sure. Driving home at night along the coast road won’t be the same without the eerie glow emanating from the heart of the building.

 

Image Three – My Bloody Valentine, Glasgow Barrowlands

The nature of this photo project ensures that I need to have my camera with me quite a lot of the time – I never seem to be without it at the moment. It is therefore a relief sometimes to leave it behind and not see everything as a possible photo. This was my intention when I headed of to see My Bloody Valentine at worlds best concert venue, The Glasgow Barrowlands. I had thought about taking my camera, but wasn’t sure about getting it past the bouncers on the door and also, I just really wanted to watch the band. Of course within seconds of getting inside there were dozens of potential photos – I had my iPhone on me and I allowed myself to take one, and only one, photo and then I would forget about photography and enjoy the concert. So this is the photo I got and I really, really like it. The quality is far from great, but sometimes the image is just stronger than any technical imperfections.