With the support of the RSA Elizabeth Lornie Award, I’ve made new work 'Lilac Positives'.
The photographic series was exhibited at the group exhibition PhotoDalkeith 2026: RSA200, at Dalkeith Palace, Edinburgh.
PhotoDalkeith partners with the Royal Scottish Academy for this major exhibition to mark their bicentenary. PhotoDalkeith 2026: RSA200 celebrates Scotland’s rich photographic heritage and the development of photography as an art form.
Set within the surroundings of Dalkeith Palace, the exhibition traces a line from founding RSA member David Octavius Hill RSA to contemporary Academicians and award-winners, including Thomas Joshua Cooper RSA, Wendy McMurdo RSA, Graham Fagen RSA and Calum Colvin RSA. Works from the RSA collection will be complemented by newly commissioned photography.
The first photographic portrait made in Scotland using William Henry Fox Talbot’s calotype process was by John Adamson in May 1840 (see National Museum of Scotland, ‘Calotype depicting Miss Melville Adamson, negative calotype, part of an album of calotype photographs compiled by Dr John Adamson’, Museum reference, T.1942.1.1.19). I recreated a series of these these now fading portraits. They are fragile works, stabilized in salt and are subject to further fading. This digital capture holds them in a permanent state of lilac. The near visibility of the women depicted holds significance for the Scottish women of early photography and photographic invention whose contrbutions are no longer visible.
