"My Community" - a photographic exhibition

A couple of months ago I began an after-school photography project with 7 pupils at Moffat Academy, aged between 12 and 18.

The “Transitions” placement was a jointly funded and supported venture between the Spring Fling Open Studio organisation and the Education Services through the Creative Learning Network (CLN), which saw 3 different artists being placed in 3 separate schools in the region, myself being one of them.

As well as giving talks to the pupils about technical, compositional and practical aspects of photography, my goal was to put on an exhibition of their work at the end of it.

The title “My Community” was broad enough for the pupils to interpret it individually, and the aim was to produce a cohesive collection of 8 photos each.

The exhibition is being held at the Old Well Theatre in Moffat over the weekend (2nd & 3rd of June), but the preview evening is tonight, from 7pm to 9pm.

While I do, of course, know what all the photos look like, I’ve not yet seen them being displayed. Some of the older pupils helped the art teacher, Miss Young, who has been a wonderful support through this project, put them all up last night. Needless to say, I’m really excited about seeing them all in place tonight.

They’ve been a great group to work with, and the potential and creativity they have all shown has been amazing. All I can really say is I’m dead proud of them all.

For those who would like a taster, or who can’t make it along, I’ve picked one image each from their collections for you to view below.


Alex took a series of shots of friends revising for their exams and nicely caught the sense of tension and pressure


Alison's family like to go sailing on the loch so her photos captured the people and action in this environment


Tom went exploring the streets of Moffat, taking photos as an observer


Mairi had fun with her friends at the park, organising them into a variety of fun poses


Daniel concentrated on photos of the band he's in


Ruaridh captured the last day at school for the senior pupils as they all went around signing each other's shirts


Min took her camera to the skateboard park to photograph her pals on their bikes and boards

If you can make it along to see the photos, your support would be appreciated and I know you won't be disappointed. But if you can't, lovely people that I know you are, I'm sure you'll be wishing them all the best.