Photographic Documentation, Periodicals and the Production of ‘Scotland’ in the Twentieth Century

The Scotland we consider to have existed half-a-century ago and, indeed, the country many think of today is one that conjures up distinctive images. But where do these visual imaginings stem from, how accurate are they (does this matter?), and what do they represent? This project will investigate how romanticised and deep-lying tensions between tradition and modernity created pictorial challenges for those trying to account for and express the character of a nation undergoing economic, social and cultural transformation during the catalytic middle decades of the twentieth century. The visual narratives they produced are important since they remain critical to how Scotland is perceived today. What were they aiming to tell us and how did they understand what they were picturing?
It is now commonly accepted that photography, film and television have created a visual imaginary of ‘modern Scotland’ through, for example, the idealisation of Highland landscape or the pictorial ‘character’ of particular cities and regions. What is rather less explored is how and why these images arose within particular narrative contexts that used pictures to tell stories or convey ideas. The proposed project will research historical sources to address sociological and cultural questions as well as issues of broader historiographic significance. The intended focus will be a series of detailed contents analyses of non-fictional material, specifically periodical magazines produced in Scotland from the 1920s until the 1980s. These may include, for instance, long-running and generalist popular monthlies with an avowedly national brief, such as the Scots Magazine and Scottish Field, but also the many shorter-lived magazines catering for niche markets. Since a key aim is to interpret the relationship between the topics and themes discussed in the text and the use of illustrative material, the research should focus upon the practice of photo-journalism, albeit that some journals simply acquired photographs to illustrate stories rather than commissioning photographers directly. A secondary aim will be to investigate the styles and catalogues of the main photographers involved, for example Robert Moyes Adam whose work was used extensively by the Scots Magazine. It is anticipated that most research will be conducted in Scottish archives, including the National Library, university collections, and some private repositories, such as the D.C. Thomson archive.

Desired outcomes include:
• In-depth case studies of key sources of documentary imagery
• A thematic and inter-disciplinary analysis of visual narratives in modern Scottish history
• Formulation of an innovative approach to understanding the relationship between national identity, modernity and visual culture
The research will contribute to a wider project which considers how documentary film makers, landscape photographers and photo-journalists were variously implicated in the construction of non-fiction stories that projected a national identity. This analysis deliberately avoids popular cinema, television, advertising and illustrated romantic fiction since the aim is to explain the unacknowledged importance of largely documentary material and approaches.