10 - Scotland's Enduring Photographic Legacy

Summary

The photographic exhibition organised by James Craig Annan in Glasgow in 1901 was important for the history of Scottish photography as it looked back at some of Scotland's unrivalled practitioners of photographic art and especially Hill and Adamson. But much still needed to be done by Annan and others so that Scotland's photographic heritage could be understood and appreciated.

Annan had exhibited original prints by Hill and Adamson at the Photography Exhibition in Glasgow in 1901 and he had already exhibited and continued to exhibit his photogravures of their images. He went further and was responsible for the work of Hill and Adamson, and especially their magnificent portrait studies, becoming known ‘to a world that had forgotten them’. The American photographer Albert Stieglitz said that Annan would be remembered for this if nothing else and it was Stieglitz who ensured that the work of Hill and Adamson reached a wider and critically important audience. Between 1903 and 1917 Stieglitz edited the prestigious and influential photographic journal Camera Work and Hill and Adamson photographs appeared in several issues. This was hugely important in getting their work recognised and establishing their international reputation, especially in North America.