Five stars
When American photographer Milton Rogovin (1909-2011) visited mining communities in Ayrshire, Fife and Midlothian over three weeks in 1982, the images he took of people at work, rest and play captured a time and place just before those communities were upended by the 1984/1985 Miner’s Strike that changed Britain forever.
Forty years on, artist Nicky Bird followed in Rogovin’s footsteps, revisiting the places, the people and their descendents of those originally depicted, marking the changes and memorialising the seismic past that shaped them.
The result in this powerful exhibition puts images by both artists side by side in a way that bridges generations to tell a story that became one of the markers of late twentieth century society. Developed by Bird with the communities depicted, each photograph is captioned with a commentary by those in the thick of the scenes depicted.
From the grubby faced men posing beside the pit or in the living room in Rogovin’s Family of Miners, Scotland (1982) series, a portrait of an entire community comes to life. The juxtapositions of some images are telling. A 1982 shot of a much needed doctor’s surgery is set next to the same shop front’s current guise as a tanning salon. In others, where men stood in the mine works in Rogovin’s black and white contact sheets, Bird’s colour studies of the same locations show a landscape transformed.
Beyond the photographs, historical banners line the walls, while a miner’s overalls become a life-sized monument to old industry. Bird’s unearthing of Rogovin’s photographic archive is treated with as much empathy as those in her own photographs. Combined, these two bodies of work form a vital piece of living history that is a testament to survival and the everyday heroism of those whose stories shaped their age.
Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh until 15th September
The List, June 2024
ends
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