Galleries celebrate 40 years of Scotland’s Photography Collection

Children in the Gorbals in Glasgow in the 1960s by Joseph McKenzie.

With over 55,000 images, Scotland’s Photography Collection is the fastest- growing part of the National Galleries of Scotland’s archives and a vast, world-class treasure trove.

So to celebrate its 40th anniversary, curators are giving visitors a snapshot of what lies within, and shout loud and clear about how important Scots have been on the world stage.

Celebrating 40 Years of Scotland’s Photography Collection runs at the Portrait Gallery from October 26 until March 15, spanning from early images dating from the 1840s, only a few years after the invention of camera technology, to up-to-the-minute work.

Photographer Zed Nelson captured actor David Tennant in 2011. Nelson got the Doctor Who star, who was born in Bathgate, to stare straight at the camera with a captivating look.

“Of all the artforms, Scotland really has led the way in photography,” curator Louise Pearson said. “Key Scottish figures come up time and time again represented in collections around the world.

“Photography having a social purpose beyond art is very much the ethos that has really inspired Scottish photographers.”

Arpitah Shah’s Tudong, from the series Purdah, The Sacred Cloth, which was taken in 2013 and purchased six years later.

Scotland’s artists continue to push boundaries and embrace new technology.

Making images has gone from a painstaking process to a press of a button on a device you can fit in your pocket.

But ideas and subject matters that started with the likes of Edinburgh-based pioneers David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson in the 1840s continue to be photographed centuries apart and now with modern cameras.

Joseph McKenzie was known as the father of modern Scottish photography. He trained as a photographer while in the RAF and became one of Britain’s most prolific post-war practitioners. After his appointment as Lecturer in Photography at Duncan of Jordanstone College in 1964, he embarked on a series of documentary projects. McKenzie recorded the dramatic transformation of Scotland’s cities during the 1960s. They included this shot of children in the Gorbals in Glasgow. During a trip to Belfast in 1969, he witnessed the mounting sectarian violence. The controversy surrounding a subsequent showing of material at Aberdeen Art Gallery in 1972 saw him withdraw from public exhibition until the late 1980s.

“There’s always been pioneering Scots who’ve made sure they stayed at the forefront,” Louise said. “It’s an exciting artform that people have pushed the boundaries of.

“We’re looking at that in different ways, from Hill and Adamson’s early experiments to contemporary artists who are using photography to really push boundaries.

“Hill and Adamson had a huge impact on how the world saw Scottish photography and what photography could do. They took it from using it to make portraits to inform a painting, to really setting the boundaries of social documentary photography.

David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson's 'Jeanie Wilson' from their Newhaven collection. — David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson’s ‘Jeanie Wilson’ from their Newhaven collection.

“We’re showing 12 of their photographs from Newhaven, at the time a fishing village on the outskirts of Edinburgh, which showed a working class community really for the first time through imagery and photography.

“That theme of pushing what you can do with photography technically, but also in terms of having a social purpose, is very strong in the collection.

“Thomas Annan’s series in the 1860s, looking at the old closes and streets of Glasgow, were the first example of using photography to show poverty and a need for social advancement and investment.

“We recently acquired his archive, which is a hugely exciting project that we’ll be working on in the next few years.”

Glasgow photographer David Hurn captures a great moment in The Annual Dog Show in 1967.

The exhibition will be the first time the National Galleries of Scotland has shown work from the ARTIST ROOMS collection, co-owned alongside the TATE, by Don McCullin, one of the world’s greatest photojournalists.

A newly acquired work consisting of photographs, film and performance by Glasgow-based artists Beagles & Ramsay will also be on display for the first time.

Pieter Hugo produced this portrait of a girl in Rwanda in 2015 as part of his focus on genocide, mass graves and the people left behind in the country.

While the anniversary is a chance to look back on Scotland’s photographic history, it’s also a time to look forward to the collection’s next 40 years.

“We wanted to take the opportunity to celebrate Scotland’s huge contribution to photography but also a moment to take stock of the collection and think about where we’re going to go with it,” Louise said.

“With acquisitions to the collection over the last ten years, we’ve really had a focus on female photographers like Wendy McMurdo, Chrystel Lebas and Arpita Shah and making sure that they’re coming into the collection in equal number.”

Tricia Malley and Ross Gillespie teamed up for a twin effort – literally. Their Broad Daylight creation featured The Proclaimers, Charlie and Craig Reid, and was part of the series As Others See Us in 2014.

Famous faces who are on the gallery walls include Andy Murray, The Proclaimers, Jackie Kay and David Tennant, but the collection stretches beyond the well-known stars.

“It’s people doing things in everyday life that we want to celebrate as well,” Louise added.

Julia Margaret Cameron created this atmospheric shot – called the red and white roses – in 1865. She is considered one of the most important portraitists of the 19th Century.

“We want people to know and to feel excited about the collection because it’s their collection. We’ve made it hopefully quite clear in the exhibition that this is only a small part of it and that you’re welcome to come back again and again.

“Scotland really has made a very important contribution to photography and we think it will continue to do so. We’re making sure that’s known about and we’re shouting about it.”

Celebrating 40 Years of Scotland’s Photography Collection, National Galleries Scotland: Portrait, October 26 to March 16 2025, nationalgalleries.org