McKenzie work to be shown at Stills Gallery

PHOTOGRAPHS never seen in Edinburgh before are to be shown in a new exhibition at the Stills Gallery. Joseph McKenzie: Women of Dundee & Photographs from the Margaret Morris collection will run from February 6 to April 9.

This two-part exhibition presents a body of work by Joseph McKenzie, dating from 1960s, alongside photographic material from the Margaret Morris collection, dating from the early 20th century.

Joseph McKenzie (19292015) is considered by some to be the “father of modern Scottish photography”. Born in London, he moved to Dundee in 1964 to teach photography at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, where he remained a lecturer for more than 20 years. Women of Dundee is a section of his major photographic essay, Dundee – A City in Transition, a collection of over 400 prints that were first exhibited in 1966 to mark the opening of the Tay Road Bridge and were acquired by The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery and Museum in 1990.

Margaret Morris (18911980) is regarded as a pioneer of modern dance and throughout her life, she commissioned photographic documentation of her work. Her early collaboration with photographer Fred Daniels (1892-1959), led to an illustrated book Margaret Morris Dancing, in 1926.

Photographs from her life and work form a part the collection at the Fergusson Gallery, Perth, which was set up to celebrate the life and work of her partner, the artist John Duncan Fergusson. stills.org