In November 1968 Phil Thomson took his twin lens reflex camera into the streets of Dundee and photographed what he saw.
The Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art student took images of school children and shops, midwives and dockworkers, new concrete and old tenements. He captured in black and white a city now lost to time and redevelopment.
But now a new exhibition of Thomson's 1968 photographs at the University of Dundee's Lamb Gallery is offering a glimpse of that lost world. Mono 68, which opens on January 17, will show 22 of Thomson's photographs (with an additional 25 supplementary images of the city) full of children who have long since grown up, grown-ups who have now grown old and streets that have been transformed in the years since. The prospect is one he's thrilled about.
Thomson, who now works as a senior lecturer in visual communication at Birmingham City University, is delighted at the revival of his photographs. "I've been a backroom guy working in advertising agencies and design groups for years and it sounds a bit cliched but I've rediscovered I was quite good at what I did. I was well taught and given amazing opportunities in Dundee," he said.
Thomson, 68, was born in Paisley in 1946 ("I was a demob baby") and moved to Perth when he was 12. He then won a place at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in 1966, "just as the new road bridge was opening up".
"Having lived in Perth which was still just about sending shorthorn cattle down the high street I was fascinated by where I was. I guess in my head I'd gone off to San Francisco with flowers in my hair."
Dundee in 1968 turned out not to be quite like Haight-Ashbury, but Thomson loved his time there. He was fascinated by Dundee's people and places in a period of transition as new prefab buildings rose and old buildings fell and that's what he opted to photograph for a college project. "I just wanted to go out and find out who I was living with and what was going on in the city."
Thomson graduated in 1970 and immediately went off to America to live and work for a year. "But I was an A1 alien and I was over 17 and under 26 so I was fodder for Vietnam so I chose to come back," he said.
He has been working in Birmingham for the last three decades as an educator and published lyricist. Every couple of years he would take out his contact sheets and negatives and think he should do something with these images but it was only last year that he finally got around to mounting a show in Birmingham. A Facebook campaign to identify the people in the photographs was also launched at the time. Now an expanded show is coming home as the city changes once more.
"I'm excited about this because Dundee is doing well and getting itself on the map again, particularly with the V&A going up there. It's got a buzz about it and it feels nice to be on the fringes of that with this show."
Mono 68 will open at the Lamb Gallery, Tower Building, University of Dundee on January 17 and run until March 25. For more information visit https://www.facebook.com/pages/mono-68/1443173022593713
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