Scottish Photographer
Andrew MacDonald was perhaps Scotland's longest active photographer, working till his early 90’s. His output was primarily in black and white photography and later in colour slides. He carried his cameras on his constant walks through the Scottish landscape, urban and rural, seeking these elusive moments when the light is just right. Andrew's beautifully observed images are barely known outside of his native Scotland where he assembled an important visual archive of twentieth century life and experience. In April 1998 I established this web site showing a small selection of his photographs, drawing many responses from admirers around the world.
Site established April 1998
Photograph: Andrew MacDonald © John Kraska collection
Spiers Wharf, Port Dundas, Glasgow.
The Forth and Clyde Canal basin around the mid - 1950's. The view was dominated by Pinkston power station with its huge cooling tower. The striking feature of this period in Glasgow's history was the air of gentle decay. Much of the street lighting was still fuelled by gas.
Andrew MacDonald - A Lifelong Photographer
Andrew's first photographs were taken as a child almost ninety years ago in 1919. He was a member of the Dennistoun Camera Club in the east end of Glasgow for many years, and exhibited frequently in local and national exhibitions. After retiring from his work as an insurance agent within the Co-operative movement in 1974, he intensified his work in photography and began to catalogue and annotate his large collection of negatives, prints and slides, whilst continually pursuing new projects. Over the last dozen years of his life he gave about 100 slide/talk shows on a wide range of subjects. He exhibited in Glasgow's Peoples Palace, Glasgow School of Art, The Third Eye Centre, and in Provand's Lordship. His work has been published in magazines, newspapers, calendars and books, and has been shown on television.
As a driver with the British 8th Army, 309 General Transport Company R.A.S.C. during the Italian Campaign of the Second World War, he made a unique photographic record of the war journey throughout the length of Italy, using an Ensign Midget and a Zeiss Ikonta camera. An extract from his diary for October 1943 reads;
"8th October. 8am. the Sicilian coast is now in sight. Mount Etna is visible on the port side. Very hot. The metal deck burns the skin. Etna on the skyline all day."
After travelling 1200 miles by sea from Algeria and disembarking in the Gulf of Taranto, he took his first Italian photographs in the marshalling yards at Foggia, the start of his collection of 160 war prints. Amongst his Scottish work he created an extensive photographic survey of the River Clyde from source to sea, including a study of the island of Ailsa Craig. The few intriguing images that are published on the small web site within the Scottish Indie Artspace barely hint at the fascinating and extraordinary collection of images that this consistent and unassuming man created. Andrew was a true artist in his community constantly developing and sharing his knowledge and his vision as an original image-maker. What remains to be done is to see published a retrospective account of his photographic output. The quality, charm, and far-reaching insight of his photography deserve the widest possible audience.
John Kraska April, 1998
Photograph: Andrew MacDonald © John Kraska collection
Ragwife, Glasgow.
Paddy's Market was situated between the Briggait and Shipbank Lane near the River Clyde. The market was originally located in Jail Square. The 'Ragwife' has spread out before her for sale, the fruit of her door to door collection. Woollen rags were sold to dealers and eventually recycled into a cloth called 'shoddy', not to be confused with the same word in English that means 'shabby'.
Photograph: Andrew MacDonald © John Kraska collection
Campomarino, Italy, 1943.
British soldiers around a paraffin heater in an abandoned farmhouse in the first winter of the Italian Campaign of the Second World War. This flash photograph was achieved by using magnesium scraped from the core of a Spitfire aircraft's tracer shell. The resulting powder was ignited in an empty can with a piece of newspaper as a fuse, and the camera was hand held with the shutter set at 'time'. The wooden box on the right is a bunk bed looted from a German barracks.
Photograph: Andrew MacDonald © John Kraska collection
Gizzi, the ice-cream man, Glasgow.
Guiseppe Gizzi, with his ice cream barrow at the corner of Wishart Street, James Orr Street and Glenfield Street, around 1937. His sales pitch covered miles of streets in Glasgow's east end where he pushed his barrow daily, switching in the winter to roasted chestnuts. The building behind the barrow is the boiler house of the Glasgow Royal Infirmary.
Photograph: Andrew MacDonald © John Kraska collection
Ladywell Street, Glasgow.
In its early days, Glasgow consisted of seven streets, Ladywell Street being one of them. The actual well was situated on the verge of the graveyard known as the Necropolis, and for that reason was eventually removed and replaced by a bronze urn. This can be seen in the photograph at the far end of the street. The small building with the sign "Ladywell Garage" was formerly Glasgow's oldest "ragged school", a school for the poor. To the left of the school runs the Molendinar burn on whose bank Saint Mungo, Glasgow's patron saint, decided to establish a cathedral. Behind the school is the Drygate where the Drygate Port was situated. From here the burn goes under Duke Street at Alexander Public School.
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Thanks to John Giles for his technical assistance.
JOHN KRASKA, 104 HILL STREET, GLASGOW. G3 6UA. SCOTLAND, U.K. Tel: 44 (0)141 332 5257
John Kraska was a Member of the Conseil d'Administration (Advisory Board) of the European arts network "Banlieues d'Europe"(Suburbs of Europe) from 1995 - 2004. Information at Banlieues d'Europe click here
"THE ARTS IN THE STRUGGLE AGAINST SOCIAL EXCLUSION"
For more Scottish and European Art, images
and reports- visit the Scottish Indie Artspace click
here
Art States - "Under Offer" flower arch in Edinburgh by artist John Kraska; Richard Demarco crisis; Ariel Dorfman writes; plus statements, images, essays....click here
Second Sightings - John Kraska sculpture in UK touring exhibition -click here
Vivacious vitreous glass & ceramic Mosaic Mural in a city park in Glasgow (director - John Kraska)
Garnethill Mosaic Mural Under Threat - Restoration Intiative.
