Snapshot of a nation begins

A SNAPSHOT of Scotland is being taken by a new partnership.

The collaboration between St Andrews University and Document Scotland, a collective of four Scottish documentary photographers, will unite some of the oldest photographs in the country with contemporary images from the present day to leave the country with a visual legacy.

The initiative will see the university, custodians of the oldest photographic collection in Scotland, support the work of modern photographers.

It will also unite the ancient with the modern, with St Andrews acquiring a substantial collection of work by acclaimed contemporary Scottish photographers, whose work will sit alongside early photographic pioneers.

The university’s special collections division holds more than 800,000 images from the 1840s onwards.

St Andrews is funding a substantial acquisition of new work by Document Scotland to be incorporated into the library’s photographic collection.

Picture: Document Scotland. Scotland in focus: Hogmanay celebrations in Comrie, Perthshire.