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We are saddened to hear of the passing of photographer Stewart Shaw. Stewart was a great supporter of Street Level Photoworks across the decades, and Scottish photography in general, along with his life partner and fellow photographer Sarah Mackay.
The pre-history resides in Glasgow Photography Group (GPG) - 1987-1989 - an association of photographers and individuals keen to advance the cause of photography in Glasgow, whose direction of travel, amongst other things, was the establishment of a photography centre. GPG would probably be called a collective these days, made up as it was of very disparate individuals.
Stewart was one of many founding members and with a trade in accounting, it is due to his diligence and record keeping, that minutes of every meeting, and documents relating to the early exhibitions and events, were kept in order to ensure the history is in its proper place, which have been drawn upon repeatedly in the context Street Level’s place in the development of independent photography in Scotland.
Stewart’s passing has occurred in the run up to our next gallery show, ‘Depth of Field’, in which many of Stewart’s Glasgow photographs in the 1980’s will be included, alongside work by several other members of GPG (more posts will follow on those others included in it). These images by Stewart have not been seen before (except on his Instagram) and demonstrate his exceptional eye as a street photographer. It was a privilege also to include some of Stewart’s early Dundee work (which was his original home town), in the exhibition ‘Disparate Individuals: Common Cause’ late last year at Lillie Art Gallery in Milngavie, a title suggested by Stewart and Sarah. The forthcoming show is an acknowledgement of those involved in those formative years, and how things evolved from the ground up.
Stewart participated in the first 3 GPG exhibitions – the first 2 in 1988 and the third in1989 and was involved in the planning, with many others, which led to the establishment of Street Level in September 1989. In 1990 he undertook a residency in Turin through Street Level, supported by Glasgow’s European City of Culture office, the results of which were shown in the exhibition ‘The Three Twins’ (Turin, Nurnberg & Rostov-on-Don in 1990, the results of reciprocal residencies with these cities which are all twinned with Glasgow (except Rostov, which has been ‘untwinned’).
In the spirt of GPG in catering to all interests in photography, Stewart and Sandy Sharp initiated the Scottish Photographers group in 2001 which emerged out of meetings of practitioners who had organised residential weekends. Scottish Photographers produced its first publication in early 2002 which contained two images by Stewart, which evolved into the NOTES newsletter (which became more of a magazine) and was published from 2003 to 2012, producing twenty-seven issues featuring the work of both its members and many others. There were between 200 and 300 members listed in that last issue. Scottish Photographers remains to this day a network of photographers who regularly meet to discuss each others work, both in Glasgow (at Street Level) and in the Northern Cell in Inverness, augmented by an E-newsletter CONTACT SHEET, assembled by David Buchanan.
Stewart was in all ways an unselfish individual and a modest man. He never asked for anything in return for all that he gave, and for that, Street Level will be forever grateful. ‘Depth of Field’ is dedicated to his memory.
‘Depth of Field’ includes work by some of the other members of GPG - David Eustace, Alan Dimmick, Sandy Sharp, Kay Ritchie, Roger Farnham, Sarah Mackay, Stewart Shaw, Robert Burns, Agnes Samuel, and Leslie Black.
A history of Scottish Photographers can be found on the website of The Scottish Society for the History of Photography (SSHoP) written by David Buchanan, with input from Stewart Shaw and Sandy Sharp.
Banner image: Stewart’s photograph published in the first publication by Scottish Photographers
Insert image: Glasgow Garden Festival self-portrait, Stewart Shaw, 1987.