This output is an essay in a soon to be published in upcoming monograph on the work of Scottish photographer Alan Dimmick.

The Collection Series: Works from a private photography collection & Alan Dimmick's studio archive, 1977-2017

Alan Dimmick (b.1961) is a Glasgow-based photographer who has been operating his own professional photography studio since the 1980s. He is best known for black and white documentation of the contemporary art scene in Scotland, from snapshots of artists at home and in their studios, to images of exhibition openings, parties and performances. Over the last 20 years, taking thousands of photographs, Dimmick has built up an unrivalled record of the people and places behind the ‘Glasgow miracle,’ a term coined by the Curator, Hans-Ulrich Obrist, in the mid-1990s to describe the extraordinary success of artists from the city. Through his close working relationship with clients and without deliberately setting out to do so, Dimmick has created an important and unique photographic record of recent cultural history in Scotland. As well as picturing key moments, such as the launches of seminal exhibitions, his photographs are a valuable record of overlooked histories including influential, short-lived projects and respected artists that are under-recognised compared to their more successful artist peers.
This first book on the work of the Glasgow-based photographer Alan Dimmick is long overdue and is published by Stills. Rather than an encyclopaedic survey, it is a hop through 40 years-worth of image-making. The content ranges from the first photo Dimmick remembers taking through to excerpts from his work and travels throughout Scotland and beyond since 1977. It features many of his unique images documenting the people and places that are synonymous with Scotland’s internationally celebrated cultural scene.

My text forms a poetic reverie reflecting on the invisible communities that construct culture and the ways in which artist groups and relationships grow into an internationally recognisable art scene. How do artist run spaces and self determination translate into formal success and institutional recognition, nationally and internationally. Why are certain narratives privileged over others creating a diminished level of complexity when considering a particular group of artists or place.