25 YEARS OF PHOTOGRAPHY CELEBRATING THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE NATIONAL COLLECTION
14 February - 19 April 2009 NATIONAL GALLERY COMPLEX, The Mound, Edinburgh, EH2 2EL
Telephone 0131 6246 6200; recorded information 0131 332 2266 www.nationalgalleries.org
Admission free The enormous contribution of Scottish photographers to the
development of their medium will be celebrated this spring, in a
special display marking the first quarter-century of the Scottish
National Photography Collection. Since 1984, nearly forty thousand
photographs - dating from the beginnings of the art-form in the 1840s
to the present day - have been acquired for the collection, which is
housed at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Comprising a
selection of 38 works, both historic and modern, 25
Years Of Photography will document the remarkable growth of the collection in its short
history, and highlight the vast wealth of material in its holdings.
In 1984 the National Galleries of Scotland took the decision to
build upon the Portrait Gallery's existing collection of works by the
pioneering, Edinburgh-based photographers David Octavius Hill and
Robert Adamson, and formally established the Scottish
National Photography Collection. Its remit is to collect, research and
exhibit photography, and to produce publications on the subject, with a
Scottish bias to its energies. Scottish photographers have been
internationally renowned since the very earliest
days of the medium, and the collection now offers an unrivalled archive
of their work and achievements.
Highlights in the display will include Hill and Adamson's engaging portrait of The Misses Farnie with Brownie (about 1845); J Craig Annan's stunning highland landscape The Dark Mountains (1890); Alfred Buckham's breathtaking aerial photograph
of Edinburgh and the Forth Estuary, Sunshine, Wind and Rain (about 1918); and the collection's most recent addition, Iain Stewart's richly atmospheric landscape, Erribol (from the series Darkeden), which was purchased in February 2009,
and has been printed specially for the display.
25 Years Of Photography will bring together the work of
historic and current photographers working in similar areas, to see how
they echo, reflect or react against each other, and to explore three
broad themes: People; Land and Stone; and Staged
and Constructed.
The first of these will illustrate the strong tradition of social
documentary in Scottish photography, with examples such as Grace
Robertson's Mothers' Pub Outing (1954) and Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert's Calderari Gypsy Children (1994).
It will
also explore different strands of portraiture, with fine examples by Pradip Malde (Richard Walker (1985) and David Williams (Six form girl, primary 1 girl, St Margaret's School, from the series Pictures from No Man's Land (1984)).
Land and Stone will examine the response of Scottish photographers
to the country's rural and urban geography, including Raymond Moore's
spare and beautiful Raes Knowes (1980); Thomas Annan's Close No. 101, High Street, Glasgow (1868-71);
and Patricia Macdonald's remarkable aerial photograph Castle, Island and Cracking Ice, Loch Leven (1987).
Staged and Constructed will feature the work of photographers who
have a more direct hand in arranging their subject matter, or
constructing images, such as Calum Colvin (untitled image from the
series Constructed Narratives (1985)) and Andy Wiener
(Separation, from the series, Love Scenes (1989)).
25 Years Of Photography will also highlight the important
work of the National Galleries of Scotland in commissioning modern
prints of historic photographs that currently exist only as negatives.
Using photographers who are particularly sympathetic
to their predecessors' work, or who are working in a similar area of
practice, the collection has helped to revive the beauty and impact of
lost images such as George P Lewis's Corporation tram-driver and conductor Glasgow (1918), and Fred Bremner's
River Crossing, River Jhelum, Kashmir (1900).
The display will also reflect the international collection, which
includes the work of distinguished European photographers, particularly
those whose practice (exemplified by Roger Mayne's Children playing on a lorry, Glasgow (1958)) was of particular
importance in Scotland in the mid-twentieth century.
www.nationalgalleries.org
- Log in to post comments