Water of Leith

“The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men, Gang aft agley.” 
― Robert Burns

I've recently moved up to Edinburgh. My plan was to arrive, settle in quickly, get to know the city a bit and then get stuck in with my photography. Unfortunately life kind of got in the way and I'm ashamed to admit that until now I haven't taken my camera out. It's been sitting in a corner of my sitting room looking at me, guilt tripping me and I finally broke… definitely time to establish myself up here and get on with some work!! 

So, first thing's first - locations. I've obviously been sussing out the areas of the city that I would like to photograph, spotting the streets that would provide beautiful backdrops and picturing lots of future portrait shoots whenever I wander around the city. I decided to take my slightly reluctant partner out to one location for a little recce and a mini photo shoot to get the feel of the area… he may not love getting his photo taken but he does look rather handsome (I might be biased!).

I've got a couple of shoots lined up for this week so I'm looking forward to trying out some new locations and getting to know Edinburgh through the lens a little better. These shots are from our walk along the Water of Leith and the stunning Dean Park in the centre of Edinburgh.

Concept...

A palimpsest (/ˈpælɪmpsɛst/) is a manuscript page from a scroll or book from which the text has been scraped or washed off and which can be used again. The word "palimpsest" comes from Ancient Greek παλίμψηστος (palímpsestos, “scratched or scraped again”).

I am trying to really think about the concepts behind the photo shoots, sets and series I am doing at the moment. 

Over the last year I have mainly just taken one-off portraits of the people around me, catching a moment or trying to capture an essence of a person in one image. I want to get away from this and really spend time planning or at least have an idea of what I am aiming for before snapping away. Not necessarily a really complicated concept, just more thought than your average point and click, pretty pics. With this in mind my most recent shoot with Eftychios, a greek architect student, was inspired by his thesis; the idea of 'Palimpsests'.

Eftychios is exploring the idea of palimpsests within the context of architectural interventions in order to rehabilitate and restore abandoned or ruined structures. 

In the 19th century 'Muralla Nazari', the wall that surrounds Granada, was partially ruined by an earthquake. Antonio Jimenez Torrecillas proposed a visual re-write of this ancient landmark and so a new, modern design was added to the existing wall. This is a perfect example of a palimpsest. Through writing his thesis, the Muralla Nazari has begun to mean something more to Eftychios; a connection that I wanted to develop.

With this set of photographs I was hoping to do exactly that; portraits of Eftychios with the Muralla Nazari. 'Palimpsest' being my inspiration. I wanted to take his idea and use it within the context of photography... the new narrative over the old.

I have uploaded the whole set here, so please take a peek, but my favourites...