I was looking back through our project archive recently and I came across this one that I’m very fond of. Face to Face was a photography project that we worked on with pupils from Fortrose Academy, and also involved attendees of D-Caff, the local dementia café where the young people volunteer. The activity was supported by High Life Highland Black Isle Youth Development Team.

The project was created by our fabulous tutor, John McNaught, who taught the young people about photography using both digital and film cameras. The theme was portraiture and the participants learnt about composition, lighting, positioning etc and once they had practiced on each other, they took portraits of the D-Caff folk.

When I went to art school, shortly after the Precambrian, film photography was the only option available. And I’d forgotten how great it was. It didn’t matter that you spent all that time photographing and developing just to get one or two shots per film you were happy with because the red light and running water soothed the frustration away. So I wasn’t prepared for the wall of jaw-dropping astonishment when that roll of film was pulled out to the development tank. I think if I’d said, “We’re just kidding; the elves did it.” I would have got, “Oh, that makes sense.”

The portraits formed an exhibition called Face to Face, which you can see below. I think it’s a lovely collection of portraits and I hope you like them too.

Alison