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Category : Portraits

21 Jan 2018
Williams Stone Craft

Keeping it in the Family [WORK: Outer Hebrides]

Angus Williams (left) has been running his drystone dyking business in Harris and Lewis for the last 12 years. The other members of Williams Stone Craft include his brother Owen (right) who runs Harris operations and Angus’s right hand man in Lewis, Murdo Sam MacLeod (centre). I took this photo at Saint Clement’s church in Rodel (Isle of Harris), where the boys are rebuilding and repairing sections of the boundary wall for Historic Scotland. Stone craftsmanship is in the blood […]

21 Nov 2017
Dr Naylor MBE

Dr Naylor MBE [WORK: Outer Hebrides]

Above: Dr Naylor outside South Harris Medical Practice, Leverburgh. In the background, Roneval (the tallest peak in South Harris at 460 metres) and Charlie the horse checking out what’s going on. Dr Naylor moved to the Isle of Harris in 1989. His surgery in Leverburgh is one of the smallest practices in Scotland. He’s one of the UK’s few remaining single-handed general practitioners. In 2016, Dr Naylor was awarded an MBE in recognition of his ‘above and beyond’ commitment to […]

12 Nov 2017
Donald

Crossing the Sound of Harris [WORK: Outer Hebrides]

Another addition to ‘WORK: Outer Hebrides’ – a series of portraits featuring people who live and work in the Outer Hebrides. Donald has worked on the Sound of Harris car ferry since the service was first introduced in 1996. Until then, (almost) the only way to transport a car from Harris to North Uist (and vice-versa) was via the ferry from Tarbert, Harris to Uig on Skye, then take a second ferry from Uig to Lochmaddy in North Uist. On […]

05 Nov 2017
Iain the Bin Man

The Happiest Bin Man in the West(ern Isles)?

Iain was born and brought up on the Isle of Lewis. He left the island when he was fifteen. Forty years later he returned home and took up employment as a ‘driver for the council’. One of his duties is driving the bin wagon, covering the whole of Lewis and Harris. Here’s how he described his job to me: “It’s magical! I’ve got the most scenic bin wagon route in the whole of the UK.” I intercepted Iain and his […]

03 Nov 2017
Joan

WORK: Outer Hebrides (part 2)

Joan owns Silhouette Hair Salon in Leverburgh, Isle of Harris. Joan’s been shampooing, cutting, colouring and styling since Silhouette first opened for business in 1998. I’m a regular. Based on a quick ‘back of a fag packet’ calculation, I reckon I must be getting close to Haircut 100 Leverburgh was a hive of building activity in 1998. While Silhouette was being built, two other new businesses were also under construction: Am Bothan Bunkhouse and The Anchorage Restaurant. That’s a big […]

22 Oct 2017

WORK: Outer Hebrides (part 1)

Presenting my latest photo project (this time it’s personal): a series of portraits featuring people who live and work in the Outer Hebrides. It’s taken me a while to get the ball rolling – I first decided to do this two and a half years ago! It’s not an original idea. Celebrated American photographer Paul Strand visited the Outer Hebrides in 1954, capturing images of a community whose traditional way of life was about to be disrupted by a Cold […]

01 Oct 2017
Matilda

The Dog, the Cat and Matilda

An abandoned house is set to become a home again. First, some background info about Matilda’s new house… In 2013 I exhibited a collection of prints with fellow photographer Ian Paterson. The exhibition was entitled ‘Leaving Home‘. All of our photographs shared a common theme – abandoned Hebridean houses. One of my personal favourites was taken in 2013, in the house that’s the subject of this post. While setting up my camera, I noticed the skeleton of a small bird […]

25 Aug 2012
Norman Mackay, finsbay, isle of harris, fank

Men at Work

MEN AT WORK Driving through Finsbay this morning I spotted Norman Mackay at Finsbay fank. For the benefit of those who’ve never heard of one before, a fank is a form of sheep pen, where the animals are corralled, sheared, dosed, marked etc. Most of the shearing has taken place by now (August) but twenty or thirty missed out first time round. This was catch-up session for the stragglers. I’d driven half a mile past the fank before realising I […]

03 May 2012
Cat Cubie, TV presenter

Leverburgh Lifeboat Portraits

LEVERBURGH LIFEBOAT PORTRAITS Overpowering the sun – on a budget! A big event here yesterday (May 2nd, 2012). The village of Leverburgh, population 200, saw the official opening of its brand new lifeboat station – the first RNLI all-weather lifeboat facility in the UK for 22 years. I knew there’d be plenty of people snapping away so figured I’d try something a little different. I decided to concentrate on taking close-up portraits of the people in attendance. My plan was […]

16 Dec 2011

NY2SY

Niall Iain Macdonald contacted me the other day, asking if I’d consider contributing one of my prints as a raffle prize for an event being held later this month in aid of the forthcoming North Atlantic Row and his chosen charity, SAMH. ‘No problem’, I said. Niall called down to Leverburgh today to collect his boat (now christened ‘The Fox’). I ventured down to the pier, camera in hand and rattled off a few snaps while he was loading it on to its custom built trailer.