FOR SAKE OF AUTHENTICITY
The other day I was talking to a lifelong friend about photography. We’ve been in to it since adolescence, we’ve known each other since we were 4 and we’ve always been able to bounce off each other creatively. In between bouts of ranting about geopolitics and the ridiculous self maiming of the British establishment I managed to vocalise why I have swerved so vehemently into the world of 35mm film photography. It’s about authenticity, about blatant and visually obvious natural deficiencies. Basically 35mm film is 4.5 times worse than medium format film and digital out performs it in a myriad of technical faculties. Fact is, the honesty and craft involved in shooting a totally manual camera on to a small negative with all it’s ‘technical inadequacy’ clear to see helps enhance “truth”. It elevates the human; my confidence, it’s a statement of acceptance and commitment. In a world of digital perfection and A.I. falsehood, authenticity needs to be front and centre; it needs to be really obvious doesn’t it? Regardless of how other people perceive through the medium of the internet, I can say that I get a big kick out of getting exposure, focus and composition right in a camera that offers no electronic assistance other than a rudimentary light meter. The deficiencies in image quality that result from chemical process in both the film emulsion and it’s development relate to nature, to the magic of light interacting with chemistry. Don’t get me wrong digital technology is still a miracle but it relates to electricity and mathematics, it feels colder, less human and infallible. When I’m dead I will have an archive of psychical artefacts that I can pass on to my children. I’m not sure it’s as easy to cherish a .jpeg as much as a drawer full of actual pictures that should last about 100 years. Hard to say how long my hard drives or cloud storage will last but a century seems fanciful.
Here’s a roll of Kodak Eastman - Vision 3 - 500t - shot at 500iso on a Nikon FM2 with a Zeiss Planar 50mm f1.4.
A distorted poster in a mosaicked mirror, in Fabric, a pan Asian restaurant in Dunfermline.
Took me a while to decide on where to focus with this one, focusing at f1.4 is super hard but I got pretty close. It did distract me from my lunch a little I must confess.
CUMBERNAULD FAILURES
The entrance to Cumbernauld Town Centre from Red Carpark 2. I had really hoped I could shoot hand-held in Cumbernauld at f1.4 but as you will see from the following photos it doesn’t quite work. So I’ll take a tripod next time and shoot at f8 or up. This is probably the best result of the batch.
Although this captures the atmosphere of the place pretty well it’s a total failure on the focus front. It was 11:30 at night and there was a bunch of goths chatting somewhere. I think about anime or something, there voices were indistinct but the words that were decipherable were cloaked in fantasy jargon.
Not sure the focus fall off works here. I like the softness but would prefer back to front focus. I couldn’t actually take this one with a tripod as I was standing on a concrete block. Never understood why some lights in Cumbernauld are purple, I don’t think it’s to defeat junkies shooting up.
Again total failure on the focus front but this film will get me the colours and dank graininess I seek for this place. Just need to bother my arse and do it properly eh? So I’ll go back with the tripod and the cable release, will it be worth it am I chasing the same fictitious dragon that the goths were blithering on about.
Failure again on the focus front, but the softness of the lights and the composition do float my boat. This one was not deemed liminal enough for the ‘liminal photography group’ on facebook. What do you think? Liminal or No?
This one is pretty 2000AD isn’t it? I also couldn’t take this one with a tripod as I was perched atop an ornamental boulder. I will solve this puzzle of Cumbernauld at night with this specific timeless, grit I’ve got in my imagination. This is not it but it is close; dim, grainy as if lost in space.
FIFE BRUTALISM
Here’s an example of what properly exposed and in focus looks like. This is the brutalist Andrew Melville Hall in St Andrews. Designed by James Stirling and build in 1967.
A wee scheme in St Andrews, I was drawn to the weak palm tree in the distance.
AIRTIGHT THOMSON
Ross Ainslie took me on a bagpipe mission on the border of Perthshire and Fife. This is Lawrence (airtight) Thomson, bag man to the stars. Seriously skilled guy and what a fckng card. We had a lot of laughs, made him fluff a few knots with our nonsense.
Lawrence was keen to show me his massive nuts. I’m not sure if it’s from the Forth rail bridge or the road bridge. Impressive nut, but he’s only got one of them.
:)
CENTRE WEST - THE DOLAN AQUA CENTRE - BRUCE FLAGSHIP HOTEL - EK SHOPPING & LEISURE
East Kilbride is regenerating and in this process it has elected to destroy the newest part of it’s sprawling shopping centre - once the largest in Europe. Completed in 2003 Centre West is already closed off to the public and preparations are underway for it’s demolition. These photos were taken on the last day the public were allowed through.
The north facing aspect of Centre West is very utilitarian and the corrosion on it’s steel is pretty astounding for being only 20 years old.
I like the bright colours of the skate park picnic table versus the brutalist back wall of Universal Connections, a youth, family and community learning service. As you can see they have abolished the tiny windows, abolishing windows now seems standard in central scotland.
Carlton Bingo moved into the main shopping centre years ago. This building and all the buildings around it are of such low quality, This is just some brick walls with a tin roof, I’m not even sure if the windows are real. The plaza tower in the background is no tour de force but it’s like Sistine Chapel by comparison. I believe this stuff will be taken down in phase 2 or 3 of the EK masterplan. Hope so!
Don’t think anyones going to miss it… Only architectural features worth noting are the colour coding, cool lamposts and the curved faux brick walls, think they’re made of acrylic.This is the only 2 story part of the shopping centre apart from the plaza tower and carpark, It used to house Debenhams, a food court and a host of other common high-street brands.
This is a pretty innovative piece of make-shift skate equipment don’t you think? East Kilbride has produced some pro skaters but they are all ice skaters.
The north wall of the Dollan Aqua Centre and it’s defunct and structurally unsound flume. Been taking photos here for years. Sad to see racist and fascist graffiti here for the first time. I’ve written before about the bend in these bollards, pretty sure it’s intentional and an ongoing project of the youths around here.
The Flagship Bruce Hotel. The north wall of this place is one of the mouldiest in the county. I’ve yet to take a picture as I believe the best light will be early in the morning. This was a very swish hotel in it’s day see proof here. In recent years it’s supposedly become a migrant hotel and there is quite the pile of vitriol online about it. Which I will not publicise here, search and you will find.
JOHN’S BAR (LYALL’S BAR fmr.) - TOBAGO STREET - CALTON
What’s left of John’s Bar after that big storm in October brought the long derelict pub down. Turns out that those 3, heavily corroded wrought iron pillars are all that was holding up the entire block. The block of tenements has been evacuated including the shop and the place has been fenced off like this for months. Not sure if they’re going to pull the whole block down including the tenements but it’s a demolition firm who’s details are posted on the fences. This of course brings up many questions over the ongoing safety problems surrounding derelict buildings everywhere. Glasgow is this most derelict I’ve seen it and I came here in 1998, it’s pretty amazing that nobody knew about this structural short coming until the pub caved in. Clearly these three pillars are not designed to bear the weight of an entire block of sandstone tenements. Though they still are!
A digital photo I took of Johns’s Bar in 2020 before it entirely collapsed in the storm in 2025. Here’s it’s entry on Old Glasgow Pubs
GLASGOW SHERIFF COURT
I love how foreboding this building looks in all conditions. This was a bright sunny day though obviously I’ve used the shadow here to heighten it’s menace. Glasgow Sheriff court is a B-listed brutalist mega structure finished in 1986. This court is the busiest in Europe which plays right up to Glasgow’s image doesn’t it? I actually used to frequent this place quite a lot in 2000’s when I worked as a bike messenger. I ended up making quite good pals with a few of the security and particularly a lassie who x-rayed my bag. Madly I used to wander the halls with important documents for QC's, Fiscals and Barristers. I even got into the bar once, which was very opulent and hummed of brandy and cigar smoke. The interior is an architectural triumph. For a place where criminals are convicted it’s amazing how much crime carries on around it’s steps and it’s well known that folk hide weapons and stashes around the place before they go in. So high volumes of jakies going in and out and high volumes of jakies hanging about to see what they can skadge.
This is the view on the way to the court. Love the colour in this, The last remnants of the fabled Hutchestown (Gorbals) on the horizon. 3 very different era’s of architecture shown in one vista, I guess this is objectively a nice photo going on colour and light alone?
ST ENOCH CENTRE
St. Enoch front.
Named after st Mungo’s mother who was apparently burried on the site when it sill housed a church amongst many other things.
St. Enoch back.
Here’s a article on what St.Enoch Sq used to be including a massive derelict hotel with a silver lady ghost.
MAKING STILL LIFE’S WITH MY ELDEST CHILD :)
Me and the eldest child love a still life and a potter around the studio being creative. They are my lucky charm and we always come up with cool ideas, mainly we wanted to photograph a scene with this cool vase I bought my partner for her birthday. It was created by artist Millie Stewart and we fell in love with here stuff at the SSA exhibition in Edinburgh.
The camera setup as of March 2026. As you can see I blacked the thing out to reduce reflections and to look stealth as FCK. I love these Zeiss lenses, stopped down they perform as well as modern lenses but wide open they are a nostalgic and dreamy mess. For some reason they give photographs life and joie de vive even on digital and I’m glad that I’ve been slowly stock piling these since the 2010’s. I can also use them on pretty much any digital camera, they have become part of my visual stamp and I get kinda disappointed when I have to use modern automatic lenses. Often practicality dictates it, i just need autofocus for some scenarios but sometimes the mojo from these still wins even if it’s not totally in focus. I think I actively dislike highly-in-focus, hi-fi, digital photography now, I’ve been hankering after a certain softness lately but my neurotic digital brain is still thinking in measurements and the technical. All the while my soul is searching for a softness and an un-described atmosphere where magic lives.
I guess what I’m striving at here is that : humans make mistakes & MISTAKES OFTEN MAKE MAGIC.
IF YOU’VE GOT THIS FAR, THANKS FOR READING.
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✴With Gratitude
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