Published 08/04/2024
Bridgeman Images is proud to announce our representation of the Joseph McKenzie Archive, a vast photographic collection from the ‘Father of Modern Scottish Photography.’
Joseph McKenzie was born in East London in 1929. At age ten, he was evacuated to Dorset with few material possessions to his name. He began his artistic career in 1947 when he was conscripted to the Royal Air Force’s Photographic Corps. For five years he honed his skills, going on to study photography at the London College of Printing and then expanded into teaching, initially at Saint Martin’s School of Art and later at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee.
Click here to explore more artworks by Joseph McKenzie
McKenzie’s work is easily recognizable. Though he used a range of cameras, from 35mm to 8x10 view, and featured a vast array of subjects, his work is uniquely personal – and a reflection of his own experiences. The photographer was revered among his students, who nicknamed him the ‘one shot wonder’ for his ability to capture shots in one frame. He was also a master of the darkroom, known for printing and developing all his own photographs. But the overarching legacy of his work was his bold exploration of post-war Scottish life against the backdrop of urban redevelopment.
McKenzie’s influence didn’t end there. Through teaching, he helped establish the careers of legendary Scottish artists and photographers such as Calum Colvin and Albert Watson. His work, which was like nothing Scotland had seen before, cemented the classification of documentary photography as an art form in the country.
Throughout his life, McKenzie received an array of awards. In 1954 he was elected an Associate of The Royal Photographic Society and in 1969 was awarded third prize in The Nikon International Photographic Contest. He was the first living photographer to be awarded a grant by the Scottish Arts Council. Besides being an exceptional photographer, McKenzie was an accomplished poet and writer.
McKenzie’s approach to photography aligned with the humanist ideals of American ‘artist-photographers’ such as Ansel Adams and Paul Strand, rather than the photo-journalistic tradition of Europe. His work was seen as more than just a means of documentation. It was an aesthetic exploration of ethics and politics.
During the more public years of his life, McKenzie took commissions and put on major exhibitions. In 1965 McKenzie premiered a series titled Glasgow Gorbals Children, in Edinburgh, Dundee, and Dunfermline. He followed it with Dundee: A City in Transition in 1966, created in commemoration of the opening of The Tay Road Bridge. The following year, he showed Dunfermline and Its People in that town. But McKenzie’s next exhibition was different.
In his 1970 exhibition titled Hibernian Images, McKenzie put on display the embattled lives of young people in Northern Ireland during The Troubles. Much of McKenzie’s work was unjustly censored, for fear he was too outwardly displaying sympathy in the armed struggle against the British state. For McKenzie, censorship became a moral battlefield. His final exhibition took place in his home gallery in Tayport, titled Homeland.
For the last 35 years of his life, McKenzie continued to build his vast archive in private. Document Scotland writes that in these years leading up to his death, the photographer was “nearly forgotten by the public and the arts establishment.” His last photos were of the flowers and greenery in his personal garden.
“McKenzie was not only a great photographer, he was a master in the darkroom; an eloquent writer and poet. When the complex threads of McKenzie’s work are unraveled, it can be seen to be among the most ambitious attempted by a post-War British photographer. It is quite clear that he is a highly distinctive and original voice in British photography. A man who forwent the opportunity of fame and fortune for principle, honesty and integrity.”
Joseph McKenzie died in 2015 at age 86, and Bridgeman Images is honored to partner with the Archive and further his legacy.
Click here to explore more artworks by Joseph McKenzie
