Natural Light II: Angela Catlin, Lillie Art Gallery, Milngavie, 0141 956 5536 streetlevelphotoworks.org Until 9 March
WHEN Angela Catlin's book Natural Light, Portraits of Scottish Writers, was published in 1985, I was studying English and Scottish Literature at Aberdeen University. I can't remember if I bought it for myself or someone bought it for me, but Catlin's collection of 49 black and white portraits of Scottish authors left an indelible impression.
This was one book which was never going to be sent to the charity shop. I took my faded and battered copy off the bookshelf before writing this piece. On the front cover is poet Norman MacCaig, looking sideways into Catlin's inscrutable lens. He's staring knowingly at me as I write this. All the portraits, as the title indicates, are taken using available light. They are all – to a man and woman – a revelation.
When Catlin, a staff photographer at The Herald for 18 years, released Natural Light there was an accompanying exhibition at the Edinburgh International Book Festival that subsequently toured Scotland.
More than 30 years on, Catlin revisited the theme with Natural Light II. This second volume was published last summer by Freight Books and today, an exhibition featuring all 59 writers she photographed for the new book opens at the Lillie Art Gallery in Milngavie.
Writers such as Alasdair Gray, Jim Kelman and Liz Lochhead, who all featured in the original book, are included again. But it also casts light on another generation of literary greats including Ali Smith, AL Kennedy and Alan Warner.
Sadly two of the subjects, author William McIlvanney and renowned literary editor Karl Miller (neither of whom appeared in the first volume), have since died.
This illuminating exhibition is part of Street Level Photoworks' offsite programme and ongoing partnership with the Lillie Art Gallery.
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