Tom Teasdale - ‘Sunny Intervals’
Saturday, May 26th 2018 - Sunday, June 24th 2018
Foyer Corridor, Shetland Museum and Archives
Tom Teasdale (b. 1979). A photographic exhibition commissioned by the cultural attaché of the European Commission in the UK. The London based photographer is exhibiting a collection of black and white photographs documenting aspects of living on some of the furthest reaches of the United Kingdom in Scotland, focusing on Shetland, Orkney and the Outer Hebrides.
Sunny Intervals
Scotland, north of the Highland divide is a desolate area, one the least populated in the European union.
The Scottish government classifies it as ‘rural and remote’. It bases this assessment on how far the nearest settlement of 10,000 people is. The Ordnance Survey defines ‘remote’ as how close the nearest road is. The English dictionary defines ‘remote’ as ‘out of the way’.
Parts of this area could also be characterised as wilderness: an abandoned place where life finds it difficult to exist.
‘I wanted to visit this place, which I had never been to before and understand why anyone would want to live there. So I packed a tent, a stove and a film camera to see it for myself.
I chose a poignant time to go. It was the eve of the general election in 2015. Commentators said that the results showed that Scotland’s voice demanded to be heard. I was interested in how people who choose to live or had grown up in this remote place identified themselves. As crofters? As islanders? As Scottish? As British or as citizens of Europe?’