Gloaming, continuing
Photograph from the ‘Glomaing’ series, in Glasgow, Scotland, ©Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert 2024, all rights reserved.
Earlier this year I started work on a new series of photographs here in Glasgow, a series I’m so far calling ‘Gloaming’. Here in Scotland the ‘gloaming’ is the darker part of dusk and some believe also of dawn. I treat it as both.
After last year’s huge project photographing portraits of 125 Artists of Scotland in their studios across the country, and all the great conversations and talking that went with it, I have to say I’m enjoying quiet walks in the city at night, in different neighbourhoods, just photographing the fabric of the streets. Just me, and my little Fuji x100v camera tucked into my pocket.
You can view some earlier images on a previous post I did about photographing the Gloaming in Glasgow.
Photograph from the ‘Gloaming’ series, in Glasgow, Scotland, ©Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert 2024, all rights reserved.
This time, the city, Glasgow, is mostly the star of the show. The streets, the windows, the posters and stickers on walls, little lanes and dead ends - all are worthy of exploration, and worth photographing to build a portrait of the city itself. Especially to build a portrait at a time when Glasgow does seem particularly down on its luck. Hopefully better days are coming for the city, and in the future we’ll look back on these images and be shocked at how far it has fallen in some ways.
The photographs are also an exploration of the light, of the dying minutes of daylight photographing in the blue light, when the streets are already dark, but there is still light in the evening sky. Just before the darkness falls.
But of course, as the saying goes, People Make Glasgow, and Glaswegians do appear in the images, but unliek the artist portraits, these passerbys are actors crossing the stage of the city streets.
What’s been particularly enjoyable about photographing this series is the almost mindfullness of it all - photographing without over-thinking it, just walking, photographing, everything, anything that catches my eye. As William Eggleston called it, photographing democratically. Everything is worthy of being photographed. Then, on returning home, editing it all instantly, again, choosing those frames which catch my eye, and then uploading ten, again without over thinking it, as a carousel onto my Instagram feed @JshPhotog. And for further enjoyment finding some music which seems to fit the images, either by title, by mood or feeling and adding that to the carousel of images. A little DJ’ing to go with the images. It’s all huge fun, and if it assists in the continuation of the shooting and making of the project then great. As Rick Rubin mentioned in his book The Creative Act, you have to follow whatever makes you do the work.
Photograph from the ‘Gloaming’ series, in Glasgow, Scotland, ©Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert 2024, all rights reserved.
Photographs of the gloaming of dusk, in Glasgow, Scotland, ©Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert 2024, all rights reserved.
All images are of course available as archival museum quality prints, printed on Hahnemuhle papers. Signed and captioned on the reverse in pencil.
Do drop me a line if this project interests you as a print, or you have ideas on parts of the city you feel are worthy of exploration. You can reach me via email as per below, and also sign up for my occasional newsletter where i share news of any new exhibitions and publications and little bits of interesting news.
Many thanks.