Critical role books still play
The September exhibition at the Brodick Library is a photographic display with the apt title of Scotland in Books by Celeste Noche.
Celeste is a Filipino American photographer from San Francisco, California, who is living in Portland, Oregon. She graduated from Stanford University with degrees in English Literature and Ancient Greek — neither of which have really come in handy for her as a photographer now. She currently freelances and specialises in documentary food, travel, and portraiture.
Scotland in Books was inspired by her visit to Wigtown, Scotland’s national book town in Dumfries and Galloway. In 2017 she completed a three-month artist residency in the town, during which she travelled around the country photographing second-hand bookshops, libraries, and private collections.
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In this age of ever-increasing digitisation, she wanted to explore the ways in which we continue to make and keep space for books, and was delighted to visit Arran during one of her first research trips.
Although her visit to the island was brief, her visits to local homes, preserved collections at Brodick Castle, seeing the mobile library in action, and finding books for sale at the chandlery all reinforced the idea that physical books continue to play a critical role in our daily lives.