This survey exhibition was in first floor, City Art Centre, Edinburgh (12 Nov 2022 - 12 March 2023). This exhibition is the first large-scale survey of its kind. Presenting the work of 14 women, the exhibition aimed to show how they responded with their cameras to life in Scotland’s rural communities, cities and beyond. What different narratives about Scotland emerge from their work? I curated the exhibition. This project was in partnership with City Art Centre.
The women in the exhibition were: Violet Banks (1886-1985), Helen Biggar (1909-1953), Christina Broom (1862-1939), M.E.M. Donaldson (1876-1958), Dr Beatrice Garvie (1872-1959), Jenny Gilbertson (1902-1990), Isobel F Grant (1887–1983), Ruby Grierson (1904-1940), Marion Grierson (1907-1998), Isobel Wylie Hutchison (1889-1982), Johanna Kissling (1875-1961), Isabell Burton MacKenzie (1872-1958), Margaret Fay Shaw (1903-2004) and Margaret Watkins (1884-1969).
Their work was drawn from 17 archives predominantly across Scotland, ranging from Galloway to Shetland. The scope of 'Glean' condenses into: 17 archives, 125 framed photographs, 8 films and 35 related artefacts in the exhibition; with 6 related events that I have devised and led on.
These events included 'Glean: Focus on Filmmaking', (27.1.23, online), a film panel with Professor Melanie Bell, (Film History, School of Media and Communication, University of Leeds), Ros Cranston (Curator of Non-Fiction Film and Television at the BFI National Archive, BFI National Archive), Shona Main (PhD researcher, University of Stirling and The Glasgow School of Art); Janet McBain (founding Curator, Scottish Screen Archive); Professor Sarah Neely (Theatre, Film & Television Studies, University of Glasgow, Dr Isabel Seguí (Film and Visual Culture Department, University of Aberdeen) and Jenny Brownrigg (The Glasgow School of Art, curator of Glean); 'Glean: Focus on Photography and Cultural Heritage', an in-conversation with Alyne E Jones (Vanishing Scotland Archive) and Hugh Cheape (UHI) 16.2.23, in-person; and 'Glean: Focus on Dr Beatrice Garvie', with Fiona Sanderson as speaker (24.2.23).
As part of the wider 'Glean' programme, City Art Centre's education programme has led on 2 digital tours with workshop, 1 lecture and 1 BSL film. 'Photography & Memory' symposium, a partnership between Edinburgh Napier University, The Glasgow School of Art and City Art Centre, took 'Glean' as one of three exhibitions the symposium was based on. I gave a keynote as part of it (2.2.23).
The exhibition aims were to establish the women’s different motivations and show how this informed on the photographs and films they made. The exhibition had four themed sections: In Room 1, the themed sections were 'Capturing Scotland', 'Nature, Landscape and Travel' and 'Recording Community'. In Room 2, the theme was 'Women and Society', and included a biographies section and a timeline which mapped the women's activities.
When assessing the aims of these women, their films and photographs were used for a variety of purposes – to record events, to share with communities as well as wider audiences, to educate, for research use, for work, to sell, or to illustrate the other activities that they were involved in. Whilst some described themselves solely as photographer or filmmaker, many described themselves in multiple ways – author, historian, folklorist, photographer, filmmaker. Two of the women had gone to art school, with the rest self-taught or learning as part of a job. A small number would not have thought of themselves in such terms as photographers or filmmakers. Seen in the whole, the work of these women provides a different insight into documentary practice from this period.
Lenders: British Film Institute, Dumfries Museum, Edinburgh Museums and Galleries, Glasgow Women’s Library, Historic Environment Scotland, Inverness Museum and Art Gallery High Life Highland, Hidden Gallery Glasgow, Highland Folk Museum High Life Highland, The Glasgow School of Art Archives and Collections, Moving Image Archive, Museum of London, National Library of Scotland, National Trust for Scotland Canna House, Orkney Library & Archive, Shetland Museum & Archives, Vanishing Scotland Archive.
