ARGYLL CREATIVE

The start of a new project entitled all at sea. Argyll has a coastline bigger than France and nowhere in Argyll is the sea's influence not felt. The importance of the sea to the cultural heritage and the economy of the area is huge. There has been massive change over the past forty years in the working environment of the area. Traditional working practices have either disappeared or evolved. Practices such as fixed engine salmon nets have closed one by one all around the coast whilst the fledgling farmed salmon industry has seen an accelerated evolution of ownership from the small owner operator to internationally owned business’s, mostly Norwegian owned.  New industries have sprung up, many to do with Eco-tourism and renewable energy and the pace of this change is relentless. I had an idea to document these changes years ago and some of the industries that I had thought to record have disappeared before I got round to photographing them. Looking at the few sets of images that I took, especially of the salmon industry, has made me realise how much has changed in such a short period of time and that some images that I captured could no longer be taken today. This has made me realise that I should indeed put some effort into recording what exists today as the next forty years will no doubt throw up as many changes as those that I have not recorded so far. This then is my attempt to record the changing use of the seas around Argyll over the next handful of years, the people affected by these changes, and the impact on the social structure, economy and environment of a very special corner of Scotland.

 

I have set myself some constraints for the project. Firstly, all the photographs taken on the 35 mm format will be taken either on, in or under the sea within the boundaries of Argyll on the west coast of Scotland. Secondly, as a form of recognition to the changes documented, all these photographs will be analogue and will be taken on B&W film, developed by myself the ‘old fashioned’ way. Being mainly a ‘digital’ photographer this will be an interesting personal project. To make it even more interesting I would also like to take one portrait of one of the main protagonists from each of the featured industries on large format wet plate. I am booked on a two day course in February 2020 in order to learn the wet plate process — all I need to do then is acquire an 8X10 or 4X5 camera with which to take the portraits. These will be the only images taken on dry land.