ThreeSixFive – A Year in the Highlands and Islands

2 Mar 2010 in Highland, Visual Arts & Crafts

Inverness Museum and Art Gallery, Inverness, until 20 March 2010

ThreeSixFive began as a collaborative project between artist Fin Macrae and fifty two participants throughout the Highlands and Islands, recording a week of their lives with digital cameras during the 2007 Highland Year of Culture. The subsequent publication and touring exhibition present an interesting snapshot of everyday life in the region, documenting landscape, work, family and leisure.

Stuart Blackhall, Forester, Badenoch & Strathspey (© Fin Macrae 2010)

Stuart Blackhall, Forester, Badenoch & Strathspey (© Fin Macrae 2010)

The human face of the Highlands and Islands is very much in evidence, both in the series of black and white photographs by professional photographer Fin Macrae and in the visual diaries of participants, projected in colour in the exhibition.

Each participant was asked to take a photograph a day, and as cameras travelled all over the region from the mainland to Shetland, Orkney, the Western Isles and into Argyll, an online gallery took shape. This interactive aspect of the project, enabling images to be shared regardless of geography and the connections enabled by 21st century technology, represent one of the most significant changes to Highland life in recent years. While change is subtly in evidence in the variety of perspectives on show, there is nothing confrontational or challenging on display.

The personal and subjective nature of the snapshot and the democratic premise that everyone is a photographer don’t really address central questions of “What does it mean to be in the Highlands in the 21st century?” or “To what extent is our culture changing and how is our identity shaped by our geography and history?” too deeply.

The randomness of the slideshow does not make a coherent statement, although there are strong threads running through individual sequences. ThreeSixFive’s universal appeal lies in images of life, work and play we can all relate to, and in its documentary rather than interpretative style.

There are some beautiful portraits in the show and there is obviously rapport and trust between the professional photographer and his sitters. Images such as Lesley MacKenna – Olympic and Professional Snowboarder, Badenoch & Strathspey, are intimate and well composed. The compressed composition of MacKenna’s head and shoulders cleverly echoes the mountain landscape, while the reflection of light in her eyes directly confronting the viewer makes an immediate human connection.

Macrae’s portrait of Michael Smith – Head Chef, Skye & Lochalsh, is another lovely example; this time a double portrait of father and daughter that embraces the connection between them. Deirdre Maclennan – Kidney Transplant Patient, Sutherland, the image of the sitter’s face cropped horizontally, balanced by the naturally cropped frame of her hair, is another engaging image crafted in a way which allows us to connect immediately with the subject.

The two halves of the exhibition, “diary” and “portrait”, sit well together within the parameters of the project, and the mixture of well and lesser known faces changing with each venue will no doubt reflect local pride and interest. ThreeSixFive’s documentation of everyday life in the Highlands is a gentle survey and a starting point for deeper exploration of our cultural territory through the medium of photography.

The exhibition and book are a wonderful document of the project, especially for those who participated in it and their communities. There is however a need for visual investigation of the Highlands beyond the scope of 2007 and its sponsored projects which remains to be seen.

© Georgina Coburn, 2010

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