A lot is happening in this image yet everything seems to fit. I still find new details in this piece each time I look at it and I was incredibly flattered to have been told it reminds some people of a Bruegel piece which is huge praise.
I vividly remember being in the park the day I took this, and feeling inspired as it was my first time photographing in the snow. I knew all the people out sledging would make for an interesting composition. This piece taught me about how to use snow as a blank canvas for other images to blend through.
I enjoy movement in images and the other photo of the flying pigeons adds this effect but also intensifies the surreal and atmospheric setting I am attempting to create. I remember taking the image of the birds very quickly and instinctively, moving naturally with my camera as they moved naturally in flight. The final result is quite dreamlike and reminds me of the Alfred Hitchcock film, 'The Birds'.
Locations:
Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow, early Winter 2021
Bingham's Pond, Glasgow, late Winter 2021
Equipment:
Olympus OM-4Ti
35mm f2.8 Zuiko lens
Ilford HP5 Plus 400
Adobe Photoshop
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Everlasting Light
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I recently visited Whitelee Wind Farm, the second largest on-shore wind farm in Europe. As you enter you’re greeted by hundreds of propellers spinning and generating electricity - it’s a rather breathtaking sight. Standing beneath their monumental size gives you the sense that you could be simply flicked away like an ant. Their combined power is enough to support 350,000 homes. Their purpose, shape and the science fiction-esque juxtaposition of engineering and nature made them the perfect source material for a double-exposure image.
The second image was taken at a Sonica light show installation I attended. I felt the spiralling pattern of the lights in this image really complimented the propellers of the first image as it helped to convey the intensity and power of these impressive wind turbines. A sense which is further supported by the silhouetted figures standing in awe of what they’re seeing. I like that the end result could be seen as an advertisement for building more wind farms which, although sometimes controversial, are ultimately a symbol of hope for a greener future.
The title carries on with this theme, more wind farms would result in more lights (power) being fuelled by the renewable energy.
Locations:
Whitelee Wind Farm, Scotland, late Summer 2022
Sonica light installation, Glasgow, early Spring 2022
Equipment:
Olympus OM-4Ti
35mm f2.8 Zuiko lens
Ilford HP5 Plus 400
Adobe Photoshop
'Everlasting Light, 2022'
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The Palace of the Cat and her Birds
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Meet Smudge. She is a friend's cat who I look after sometimes. In her house she has a stunning stained glass in her hallway window. I paired the two images together to exaggerate the tempestuous relationship between cats and birds.
Locations:
Hyndland, Glasgow, Summer 2022
Hyndland, Glasgow, Summer 2022
Equipment:
Olympus OM-4Ti
35mm f2.8 Zuiko lens
Ilford HP5 Plus 400
Adobe Photoshop
Hideaway
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This piece is my personal favourite in the collection. It reminds me of the entrance to some kind of villainous lair from an old 1960s spy film.
I have always been drawn to the red SECC tunnel that arches over the Clyde expressway. Liminal space is a technique I use often in my work and I think this is a prime example. I love the way your eye is drawn down the centre through the tunnel and up towards the mountaintop.
I also enjoy the contrast of the natural and urban in the piece, exaggerated by the way the curving lines of the tunnel resemble the Wifi logo - the ultimate symbol of man-made modernity. For me, I draw great personal delight in the added detail of the person’s shadow at the end of the tunnel, it’s as if they are straddling the line between nature and the city.
Locations:
SECC Red Tunnel, Glasgow, Winter 2021
Bla Bheinn, the Cuillin, Isle of Skye, Autumn 2021
Equipment:
Olympus OM-4Ti
35mm f2.8 Zuiko lens
Ilford HP5 Plus 400
Adobe Photoshop
Atlantis
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This is one of the first double exposures I made. The view of the beach is in Crail, Fife which is where I was inspired to start the Lagoon project.
Something in the angle of the beach image had me reaching for an old photo from a holiday in Budapest from a viewpoint overlooking the city. The space in the beach image framed the overlapping image well.
I love the fun little detail of the woman’s hair wrapped in a bun, beside the domed roof of the building beside which has a very similar shape. The final dreamy result of this image is a city largely beneath the water. This is where the title, Atlantis, comes from.
Locations:
Crail Beach, Fife, March 2020
View of Budapest from outside the Hungarian National Gallery, June 2015
Equipment:
Olympus OM-4Ti
Olympus OM-1n
35mm f2.8 Zuiko lens
50mm f1.8 Zuiko lens
Ilford HP5 Plus 400
Adobe Photoshop
Hideaway
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Dundee is a city that I love to spend time in, it reminds me of Glasgow with its creative energy and industrial past. Before this last solo trip to shoot a roll of film, I used Google Street View to scout out interesting views of the Tay Rail Bridge, an iconic and historic Dundee landmark. When I visited Dundee’s newest landmark, the V&A museum, I knew the juxtaposition of tradition and modernity with these two iconic sites would be effective for one of my double exposures.
The triangular underpass connected to the architecture of the V&A is appealing to the eye as a basic shape, but also the space within allowed the imagery of the bridge, a symbol of transition and progression, to flow through beautifully. The finished piece reminds me of some kind of ancient pyramid or a drawbridge acting as the doorway between history and modernity.
Locations:
V&A, Dundee, Spring 2022
Tay Rail Bridge, Dundee, Spring 2022
Equipment:
Olympus OM-4Ti
35mm f2.8 Zuiko lens
Ilford HP5 Plus 400
Adobe Photoshop
Mack
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I had the photo of the Mackintosh neon sign for some time and when I started this project I had always wanted to use it. On one of my walks during lockdown I came across the statue and they fitted. My favourite part of this piece is the way the neon letters that makes up, 'Mackintosh' weave in and out of the frame. Depending on what it is but I find being suggestive in artwork can be more compelling than revealing the whole subject entirely.
Locations:
Mackintosh statue, Glasgow April 2020
Mitchell Lane, Glasgow c. 2014/2015
Equipment:
Olympus om-4
Ilford 35mm
Adobe Photoshop
Sci Fi Fennel
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There are lots of details in my work and you often need a second or third look to spot them. During the pandemic, hand sanitiser was low in stock and in this image I enjoyed playing with this fact to create a kind of dystopian landscape which represented our reality at the time. You can see there is a bottle of hand sanitiser with alien-like creatures approaching it. To reinforce the science fiction setting, I used a photograph of fennel cooking in the pan and allowed its unusual shape to create a liminal focus throughout.
The contrast of the real and practical act of cooking fennel as a lens through which to view the strange and otherworldly scene beyond represents the surreal everyday reality of living through a ‘world-changing’ pandemic which would have previously seemed unimaginable to most of us.
Locations:
Fennel cooking in the pan, Glasgow, early Winter 2021
Playground outside the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Autumn 2021
Equipment:
Olympus OM10
Ilford HP5 Plus 400
Adobe Photoshop
