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At the drying nets

Collection: Gray's School of Art Collection
Object Type: Photograph
Artist/Maker: MacLeod, Steven S.
Media/Materials: Original B&W darkroom prints with Ilford Warmtone silver gelatin prints with Winsor & Newton black oil stick applied.
Dimensions: image size: 40 cm x 30 cm; overall: 57 cm x 47.5 cm

Description:

A silver gelatin photographic print hand manipulated with black oil stick by local caithness people.

Artist statement:
This image is from my series NIL. It was a ten year project that took me all across the Highlands in search of rural communities that had been abandoned after WWI. After researching the 1922 Census I realised that many communities collapsed as many of the young men who went out to war never came back and in turn, rural crafts and industries also disappeared as people move to urban areas.
I made the prints in the darkroom and then coated the print in black oil stick, before offering it to complete strangers in each location. They in turn wiped off the ink and returned the print six months later, this work become democratized by my giving the work away and allowing other to alter it. I felt the story wasn’t about my journey but of those who had left and never returned.


Object Number: ABDRG2016.2