Scotland's photographic pioneers

Archived Material - May 2007 Alex Salmond was elected as First Minister

Appropriately enough, Scottish inventor James Clerk Maxwell took a picture of tartan ribbon when he tested his colour photography theory back in 1861. Using red, blue and green filters he successfully took a full colour picture, although the results were said to be a little disappointing!

This wasn't the first time a Scot had pioneered new photographic techniques. In 1842, just three years after the very first photographs were taken in France and England, a Scottish medic and university lecturer took the first calotype portrait in Scotland. Calotype was the first photographic process to use a negative image to produce more than one print.

So successful was Dr Adamson's experiment that his brother, Robert, headed for Edinburgh intent on pursuing the production of calotypes as a career. And it was Robert Adamson, in partnership with David Octavius Hill, who really earned Scotland its permanent place in the photographic history books. Their Rock House studio on Calton Hill in Edinburgh was the site of some of the most sophisticated and earliest photography ever seen, including ground-breaking action shots and portraits of the great and the good. Together they made more than 3,000 pictures in just four years and their work can still be found in major collections throughout the world.

While Scotland didn't invent photography, it certainly contributed to its development. Throughout the 1800s Scottish photographers pushed the art of photography to new technical and creative limits. Thomas Annan famously recorded the slums of Glasgow in what is considered to be the first use of photography as social record. Meanwhile other Scots took their skills abroad to record major events such as the American Civil War and the Crimean War.

The twentieth century saw the creation of Scotland's first photographic gallery and both the Glasgow School of Art and Edinburgh College of Art established Fine Art Photography departments. St Andrews University, home of photographic pioneers Sir David Brewster and the Adamson brothers, became an internationally renowned centre for the history of photography. It now offers a course in conjunction with Dundee University on the history and practice of photography.

In the twenty-first century Scotland's place in photographic history is set to be celebrated with a major new venture, the creation of the Scottish National Photography Centre (SNPC). Sponsored by Sony and due to be located in the former Royal High School on Calton Hill, the SNPC will be a gallery, educational forum and conservation centre for the best in photography and photographers, both national and international.

In a recent SNPC booklet, Scotland's First Minister Jack McConnell said: "Photography is a great democratic enabler, capable of inspiring, disturbing and delighting the viewer. It gives us new understandings, brings life and light to our lives, and remains the most accessible of media."

It was in this spirit that the Scottish Executive recently commissioned a series of photographs from five of Scotland's leading photographers, with the aim of enlightening people about contemporary Scottish life. The images can be seen welcoming visitors at Scottish airports throughout the summer of 2005 and have also been made into a special commemorative book that will be presented to world leaders gathering in Scotland for the G8 Summit.

It's a testament to the strength of Scotland's modern photographic industry that four of the five commissioned photographers were born in England but have chosen to make their careers north of the border.

"I moved to Scotland to become Picture Editor of the Scotsman," explains Paul Dodds, one of the photographers who contributed to the book. "I decided to go freelance in 1998 and it was the employment opportunities in Scotland that gave me the confidence."

For photojournalist, Tina Norris, it was the landscape that brought her to Scotland: "After I worked in Alaska for three months I really couldn't stay in London. I had to move north!"

You can see images from the book at Scotland is the place.