St Andrews Photography Festival Returns this September!
Preparations for the second St Andrews Photography Festival are well underway. This year we are looking at ‘Scots at Home’, a theme that allows for many interpretations and approaches. Our team in Special Collections has been hard at work curating four distinct shows from our photographic archive.
The photographic firm J. Valentine & Sons of Dundee was a multi-generational family of photographers who documented the lives and landscapes of Scotland. Jane Campbell (Research Cataloguer & Database Officer) is our specialist on the Valentine Collection and her selections will be on show at the Richardson Research Library at Martyrs Kirk, North Street. Jane has compiled an exhibition which not only showcases some beautiful highlights from the Scottish Isles, but also illustrates the versatility and methodology of a large photographic firm in the production of postcards and souvenir books at the turn of the century.
By contrast, Edward Martin (Photographic Collections Cataloguer) has looked across all our collections drawing inspiration from ‘Design and Innovation’. Scottish architects, artists, engineers and inventors have made long standing contributions to the world. This outdoor exhibition, to be displayed along The Scores, draws on these references in both artistic and documentary photography.
Heading over to the St Andrews Golf Museum, you will find one of the portfolio exhibitions of ‘Scots At Home on the Green’ curated by Trevor Ledger (Golf Collections Cataloguer). Using the camera to capture not only the athletes, who are typically the centre of most sports photography, we also look at the spectators, caddies, and labourers who find a place on the courses in and around St Andrews.
Rachel Nordstrom (Photographic Collections Manager) has selected one of our newest major acquisitions, which is now one of our earliest collections, to compile a show of Lord and Lady Kinnaird’s ‘Photographs from Rossie Priory’. Two of the earliest patrons of Scottish Photography, the Kinnairds not only set up their own photographic studio with the help of Thomas Rodger (local St Andrean photographer), but from their home in Perthshire they promoted and encouraged the uptake of photography in St Andrews after its invention by William Henry Fox Talbot.
In addition to the Special Collections exhibitions, the St Andrews Photography Festival will showcase the work of artists, projects, and collections from across Scotland. See www.standrewsphotographyfestival.com for a full list of events and exhibitors you can enjoy this September.
Rachel Nordstrom
Photographic Collections Manager