The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Scottish photos
The Watermill Gallery, Aberfeldy, until April 30
Stunning and evocative, this exhibition is the result of years of dedication to the art of photography and the ability to withstand the worst of Scottish weather in a bid to capture the perfect image.
It features the work of Stuart Low as well as that of selected photographers from the Scottish Landscape Photographer of the Year (SLPY) competition.
Stuart, one of the driving forces of landscape photography in Scotland, is a photographer, instructor in dark room techniques and master printer who founded the competition.
Now in it’s fourth year, it is firmly established as one of the world’s most prestigious photography competitions, promoting the most talented photographers and their striking images of Scotland’s magnificent land, sea and cityscapes.
Head judge Stuart, 53, from Carse of Gowrie, has spent three decades taking photographs of trees and each finely reproduced print has a story to tell.
“Scotland’s Treescapes celebrates my passion for photographing trees in the landscape,” he says. “We most often think of Scotland as a country of the grand view, where our rugged mountains, breathtaking glens and dramatic shores make for the most spectacular of images.
“But there’s such a lot of beauty on and around our doorsteps that often goes unnoticed, and especially where trees are concerned. I’ve been fascinated by their marriage with the landscape, where I’ve spent the past 30 years capturing them through my lens.”
Stuart says the exhibition is not a botanical study of trees; it’s more a different way of looking at trees in our landscape.
“For example, how I’ve captured them in an artistic sense, or hints in the image that tell the story behind the tree itself. There’s even a little humour thrown in, some nostalgia and tiny details that emerge in the images.”
In tandem with the exhibition, Stuart is launching his latest book, also titled Scotland’s Treescapes. Alongside his work are photographs from previous SLPY competition winners, including Damian Shields, Chris Swan and Karen Deakin. Their work is wide-ranging, including breath-taking shots of Glen Coe and Glen Affric to windswept beachscapes on the Isle of Harris.
Exclusively to The Watermill, the exhibition also includes the first showing of the winning images from this year’s SLPY competition.
This includes the dramatic photograph by the overall winner, Paul Webster, which is of light breaking through on Aonach Eagach, titled Dreams and Nightmares.
It coincides with the publication of the fourth SLPY competition book.