Organised by Peacock Visual Arts, Aberdeen, Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow and Lillie Art Gallery, Milngavie FUTUREPROOF 15 is a series of exhibitions showcasing new talent from Scotland’s photography and fine art degree courses.

The exhibition intends to capture the variety within the medium of photography embraced by emerging artists. The title ‘FUTUREPROOF’ is a pun on the definition of futureproofing – of finding ways of not becoming obsolete in the future, and also of the subtle ways of anticipating future developments in the field, of seizing opportunities, as well as the actual and intangible influences in ideas that feed the arts of photography. This cross-section of work by young artists is a compelling insight into our place within the contemporary world, with personal stories, theatrical constructions, documentary observations on the social and the psychological, the ordinary and the dramatic, and vice versa. All this, executed through the innate and the practical application of photographic media.

Mark Osborne

Calum Douglas

FUTUREPROOF 15 artists are:

Peacock Visual Arts:
Albert Elm | Peter Holliday | Sophie Mae Howie | Alan Knox | Mark Osborne | Lucie Rachel | Bobby Sinclair | Sebastian Mary Tay | Joletta Thorburn

Lillie Art Gallery:
Miriam Chefrad | Will Clark | Calum Douglas | Janice Fleming | Aidan Ford | Iga Gozdowska | Mairead Keating | Rebecca Moffat | Gregor Shmatz | Eve Stotesbury | Lynne Strachan | Joletta Thorburn | Rachel Townsend

Peter Holliday

Bobby Sinclair

Mairead Keating

Exhibitions run: Peacock Visual Arts (Aberdeen) 22 August – 3 October and Lillie Art Gallery (Milngavie) 22 August – 16 September.

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Find more events in our weekly bulletin here.

The Institute for Photography in Scotland (IPS) has launched the 2015 Season of Photography – an umbrella title for a series of lively exhibitions and events taking place at multiple venues throughout Scotland until the end of September 2015.

Showcasing the wealth of activity around photography in Scotland, the Season includes exhibitions at the main photography centres, as well as regional museums, galleries and venues across the country. This includes exhibitions and events at Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow, Stills, Edinburgh, the National Galleries of Scotland, University of Glasgow, University of St. Andrews, and the National Museums of Scotland as well as exhibitions taking place across the country, from Fife FOTOSPACE to regional museum venues in Linlithgow, Kirkcaldy, Clydebank, Irvine and Hamilton.

A unique feature is the range of self-organised artists events: Six Foot Gallery’s Month of Photography, ACTINIC, a festival dedicated to alternative, historic and new analogue photo related arts, and the second Blueprint, which explores the relationship between photo-mechanical printing and photography. There will be exhibitions by photography collectives and platforms such as Fèis, the Forgotten Collective, Document Scotland and Goose Flesh, as well as displays of work from photography associations, such as Queens Park Camera Club, and the five camera clubs across Fife. Talks, seminars and hands-on workshops will take place throughout the Season at various venues.

The Season highlights, celebrates and promotes the range of photography activities taking place. From the historical innovations of Anna Atkins and the American pioneer Lee Miller, to the contemporary narratives of Maud Sulter, the Magnum Photographic Agency and Scotland-based photography collectives, the Season offers something for everyone and tells multiple stories about the diverse ways in which photography is used as a creative tool.

Selected highlights:

until 17 May | Grace and Clark Fyfe Gallery
45 Sun Pictures in Scotland
In late December 2014 200 pinhole cameras were placed in the 45 most populous cities & towns of Scotland. This is the result.

28 May – 1 August | The Trinity
The Dusk Water
Alex Boyd was appointed as the Artist in Residence for his native North Ayrshire and tasked with documenting the landscapes of his youth.

26 June – 26 July | Various venues
Actinic Festival
A new festival of photography and print in Edinburgh.

22 August – 16 September | Lillie Art Gallery
22 August – 3 October | Peacock Visual Arts
FutureProof 2015
An annual showcase of new talent in photographic image-making selected from across Scotland’s photography and fine art degree courses and shown in Glasgow and Aberdeen.

To quench your photographic appetite this summer, head over to The Season’s events calendar to find out what’s on near you.

More: Website

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Find more events in our weekly bulletin here.

A Fine Beginning is a Welsh photography collective, established by James O Jenkins, with the ambition to develop a platform to discover and showcase contemporary photography being made in Wales today. The collective takes its name from the first chapter of Dylan Thomas’s unfinished novel ‘Adventures in the Skin Trade’.

The collective launched with a publication in May 2013 at the publishing weekend of the inaugural Diffusion: Cardiff International Festival of Photography. The issue showcased the work of four of our current members; Gawain Barnard, Jack Latham, Abbie Trayler-Smith and James O Jenkins. In foregrounding photography in Wales, the festival provided an opportune moment to launch the first instalment of A Fine Beginning.

A Fine Beginning aims to offer a platform to photographers making work in Wales to have their photography seen and appreciated in Wales and beyond. To find out about future projects or to submit your work, please get in touch (@afinebeginning).

Our first exhibition ‘A Fine Beginning: Made in Wales’ was at Arcade Cardiff (14 – 30 March 2014). The exhibition showed work from the collective as well as selected images from work we have featured on our blog. The second ‘Made in Wales’ exhibition opened at Oriel Colwyn on 5 September (to 31 October 2014) and shows work by 21 photographers we have featured on our blog.

On 28 August, our joint exhibition with the Scottish collective Document Scotland called ‘Common Ground’ opened at Street Level Photoworks in Glasgow. The exhibition features new work from the collective and runs till 19 October.

The Collective

Rutherglen – James O Jenkins

James O Jenkins
(b. Gorseinon) is a photographer and co-founder of Portrait Salon. He has exhibited at The Photographers Gallery, The Association of Photographers and Hotshoe Gallery. His work has been published widely including The Sunday Times Magazine, The Independent on Sunday and Creative Review. In 2012 he published his first book ‘United Kingdom’, a visual study of traditional annual UK customs, which has been shown in London, Helsinki, Arles and New York. In 2013 his series ‘United Kingdom’ was featured at The Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art.

The Big O – Abbie Trayler Smith

Abbie Trayler-Smith
(b.Newport) is a documentary and portrait photographer whose work draws primarily on an emotional response and engagement with her subject. Having spent 8 years at The Daily Telegraph, covering news and features around the world, including the Iraq war and Asian tsunami, she now travels globally on assignment for a wide variety of clients and enjoys spending time on personal long-term projects in the UK. Abbie’s study ‘Still Human Still Here’ on destitute asylum seekers in the UK was exhibited at foto8’s HOST gallery in London in 2009 along with her award winning accompanying multi-media short film. Her portrait of Chelsea from the series ‘The Big O’ won 4th prize in The National Portrait Gallery’s Taylor Wessing Prize 2010. She joined Panos Pictures in 2007 and became a member of Panos Profile in 2010.

A Line Runs Through Us – Gawain Barnard

Gawain Barnard
(b. Rhondda) completed an MFA in Documentary Photography at the University of Wales, Newport in 2009. His Photographic work and research has mainly focused around the environment and people of his youth. Making quiet portraits of adolescence and precise observations of their surroundings Gawain brings new and fresh reflections of the once industrialised regions of South Wales. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is represented by Millennium Images.

Looking for Lilacs – Jack Latham

Jack Latham
(b. Cardiff) is a Welsh photographer based in Brighton. A 2012 graduate of the BA Documentary Photography course at the University of Wales, Newport, his work focuses on more conceptual subject matter and is often presented in the form of large format photography and self-published books. His photographs were first published in the British Journal of Photography in their “2012 Student Profile”, which highlighted up and coming talent across the UK. Jack has continued to work both in the UK and internationally and some of his most recent work is currently being exhibited in New York. In addition to his own practice he co-curates a monthly lecture series in Brighton “Miniclick“.

Common Ground runs at Street Level Photoworks until 19 October. For more about Common Ground, take a loot at this feature about Document Scotland.

More: Website | Twitter

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See more arts collectives we’ve featured on the site. Think we should feature your collective? Get in touch.

As part of GENERATION, photographer and filmmaker Wendy McMurdo is presenting a series of collected works ranging from 1995 to 2012 at Street Level Photoworks until 17 August. In addition to The Skater and film The Loop (made with Paul Holmes in 2009), the exhibition will feature several works not before seen in Scotland as part of a major solo exhibition of collected works that have been curated specifically for GENERATION.

McMurdo focuses on the relationship between technology and identity expressed through the images and ideas of childhood. She looks at the psychological world of children and young people, both as a protected space and, increasingly, as a ground for marketing wars and a prematurely forced adulthood.

Two limited edition Wendy McMurdo prints of the above image have been produced to accompany the exhibition. These can be purchased from the gallery during the run of the show or direct from Wendy’s website.

Digital Play runs at Street Level Photoworks until 17 August. McMurdo will give an artist talk on 9 August to accompany the exhibition. For more details about the exhibition see the Street Level website.

More: Website | Facebook | Twitter

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Find more events in our weekly bulletin here.

Outset Scotland:

RSA New Contemporaries:

Art Pistol:

Spin:

Street Level Photoworks:

For more about Own Art see their website here.

More: Website | Facebook | Twitter

You can see more photographs of the day here, or go here to see the artists talks from Sunday’s event. Keep reading to find out what the weekend was all about and who joined us.

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WHAT? Day One…events round and about Glasgow, bus ride, special tours, private talks and a soundtrack launch / screening Full listings below.
Day two…tell us who you are, meet other members, have a drink or two on us, go to the pub. Bring a friend. Full listings below.
WHEN? Saturday the 14th and Sunday the 15th of November 2009
WHERE? Glasgow

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We’re taking the online community into the the real world, giving members an opportunity to meet us and each other over the course of two days.

Join us on our bus on Saturday 14th for a tour of some of Glasgow’s lesser and better known creative spaces. Bring yourself and bring a friend. See inside studios, galleries and facilities, meet the people who run them, listen to the people who work and exhibit at them. Then come along to a soundtrack launch and screening at the Panoptican in the evening, all for a feature film that hasn’t been made yet…

On Sunday afternoon we’re having a few glasses of wine at Sloans and listening to a selection of our members talk about what it is they do. After that we all get to join in. Chat around some of the topics that interest you, get your teeth into the issues, delights and problems facing creative people. All topped off with an evening of music, dominos and great beer at the State.

Saturday 14th
>11.30am…have a cuppa & meet the team at Mono
>12pm…Workshop tour: Sarah Raffel shows us around her jewellery workshop and store at Brazen
> 1pm…Artist talk: Colin Gray introduces In Sickness and In Health at Street Level
> 2.30pm…Designer talks:  John Galvin & Joachim King introduce us to their furniture currently exhibiting at Che Camille
> 2.30pm…Artist talk: Michael Thomas Jones introduces Modernista at The Lighthouse
>2.30pm…Exhibition: come with us to see Torsten Lauschmann’s exhibition at Mary Mary
>3.30pm…Artist talk: Afternoon tea & a chat with Erin McGrath about the new exhibition at the GFT’s Cafe Cosmo
>3.30pm…Artist talk: Artist in residence Edwin Pickstone gives a tour of the Glasgow School of Art’s letterpress facility
>3.30pm…Exhibition: PASSING PLACES: Landscapes of Glasgow and Western Scotland by Dan Williams
> 5pm…Gallery tour: Fun Makes Good give us a preview of their upcoming exhibition at Welcome Home
> 5pm…Artist Talk: Jennifer Nicolson talks to us about her exhibition at The Tiny Gallery at Maisonette
> 5.45pm…Meet the Artist: Ciara Phillips introduces her exhibition at Washington Garcia
>5.45…Exhibition: last chance to see Warehouse of Horrors exhibition at +44 141 Gallery
>5.45pm…Studio Tour: Exclusive tour of UK’s only Dolby Premier Mix Theatre at Savalas
> 7pm…Screening & album launch: Dummy Jim, The One Ensemble & Sarah Kenchington at the Panoptican
> AND…you can add your own event to the map. No matter where you are. We’re curating a mini cultural olympiad. Find out more here or see what’s already on the map here.

Sunday 15th
>12pm…Common of Houses Exhibition at George Square
>12.30pm…Scottish Digital Shorts Launch 2010 at GFT
>2pm…This Is… and Who Are You? at Sloans
> 5pm…GSA Mutual present Sunday School at The State

Images by Patrick MacDonald & Suzy Glass