Congratulations to our club’s External Competition Secretary, Paul Morgan. His remarkable photograph of a Damselfly featured on Alan Titchmarsh’s TV programme on Sunday morning.
Cameron Scott
Our first visiting lecturer of this new season photographed the marvellous landscapes of Scotland from the air, the second photographed the night sky with stunning clarity. Our third, last Thursday night, has his feet firmly on the ground.
Cameron Scott is a leading Documentary photographer. You may already have seen his work in the country’s leading national newspapers, but last week club members had the opportunity to listen to the photographer himself talk about his work. He started by discussing the difference between Photo Journalism and Documentary photography, defining the latter as the ability to capture human emotion by releasing the shutter at the decisive moment. That term, decisive moment, was coined by one of the greatest photographers ever. Look it up, it’s equally relevant today.
Cameron explained his preference for the 3:2 format, and as a photographer of the highest calibre he arranges his compositions in-camera. No reliance on cropping and post processing here. He also largely photographs in Black & White, although Cameron did show some Colour photographs where his use of colour was impeccable.
His subject matter is the demonstrations and marches we see on news bulletins. Seeking out key moments of human interaction his photographs capture the intensity of the moment where the protestors and marchers often become lost in the fervour of the moment. His photographs capture moments of introspection too, where protestors and marchers are randomly reminded of the reasons behind their demonstrations.
He also works with the Glasgow Street Aid, documenting the work of volunteer medical crews working on the streets of the city through the night.
You will find Cameron Scott’s photographs online, seek them out.
Resistance
We were fortunate to be visited by Cameron Scott at a particularly opportune time. Resistance is the name of the exhibition currently on at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art – Modern 2. It documents protests and marches from the time of the Suffragettes through to modern times. Photography had only appeared almost a generation before the Women’s Social and Political Union in 1903, and had only started to become widely used when George Eastman founded Kodak during the 1880’s, so this exhibition follows the path of photography as well as the road of the marchers.
The exhibition includes the work of Christina Broom, the first female press photographer in the UK. Edith Tudor-Hart, who documented dire living conditions in the Rhondda Valley in Wales is also represented, as is Nora Smyth who photographed Suffragettes in East London between 1913 and 1917.
In 1936 David Savill photographed Jarrow marchers passing through the village of Lavendon in Buckinghamshire. In 1981, Martin Jenkinson who was familiar with that 1936 photograph photographed the People’s March for Jobs as it passed through the same village. He photographed from the same spot as David Savill had 45 years earlier and both photographs are displayed together.
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art – Modern 2, 73, Belford Road, Edinburgh. EH4 3DR. Admission: Students – £7; 65+ – £12; Full Price – £14; Friends of N.G.S. – Free.
Thanks for looking in.