An ATM appears embedded in a woodland wall, like something out of a modern-day Narnia.
An ethereal landscape of trees is reflected upside down on the walls of an apartment. A sweeping view of sheep pens and moorlands runs down to mist and high seas. These are just some of the images on show at Street Level Photoworks in Glasgow, as part of their annual showcase of the work of recently graduated photographers in Scotland.
This is the sixth Futureproof show, a series which started out in 2008 with just four participants and rapidly grew to more than 20 over the following years. While the 2014 show is curated by Malcolm Dickson of Street Level Photoworks, an organization set up to inspire artists and the public to engage with photography, Edinburgh's Stills Gallery and the Cooper Gallery in Dundee have acted as advisors, and in the past the exhibition has also been shown in Dumfries and Aberdeen.
"We undertake visits to all the photography degree shows in Scotland," says Dickson, who tells me that Futureproof is aimed at giving emerging photographers at least one major exhibition at the start of their careers to help them "get their names out there".
While the majority of photographers work principally with the camera, there is a growing number of artists who are also using photography as a means of expression in their wider creative practice.
"The current photographic art scene is versatile and adds vigour to the visual arts mix," says Dickson. "But like any practice, it is a long haul and a hard slog. Artists need to get their work talked about, and to plug into the right networks. More of this has to happen within Scotland itself to strengthen the sector."
Of the photographers showcased this year at Futureproof, many play with the physical and material properties of photography, dicing also with that fine line between reality and fiction - whether created in the digital darkroom or in real life.
The diversity of styles, subject matter and thinking on display in the Trongate gallery is impressive. Yaz Norris (Edinburgh College of Art), whose peripatetic 'camera obscura' images layer outside shadows on an internal landscape, investigates the "importance of light". Gemma Dagger (City of Glasgow College) creates surreal, theatrical scenes in community halls to explore the "breakdown of community and collective consciousness". Jamie Mellor (ECA), who has a penchant for putting cash machines in unlikely places, challenges "perceptions of the normal".
Elsewhere, Jane Beran (Glasgow School of Art) displaces a private archive of images by projecting them in installations in the gallery space in a body of work that investigates memory and fragility. James Parker documents Edinburgh's Gorgie area in newspaper format, while fellow Edinburgh Napier graduate Mhairi Law looks at the lives and livelihoods of young people who have returned to Lewis.
"Futureproof aims to capture something of the full range of ways that younger and emerging artists engage with photography," says Dickson, "from creating documentary to tell stories of the lives of others or one's own private life, to using the photograph as a metaphor for memory; from the excavation of neglected sites from the past or the telling of fictional stories, to work which is quite simply an energetic stream of consciousness.
"It's an exciting time for photography in Scotland," he enthuses, and you could say that Futureproof puts the bare bones of that on the walls. "At any one time you will find a multitude of exhibitions and events happening in major galleries, pop-up spaces and online platforms. A number of collectives have emerged in the past couple of years, too. Something is stirring and photographers are hungry."
Futureproof, Street Level Photoworks, Trongate 103, Glasgow (0131 552 2151, www.streetlevelphotoworks.org), Tue-Sat, 10am-5pm; Sun, noon-5pm, until February 8
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