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By Max Pizarro The Georgetown Current Wednesday, November 17, 1999 "Reprinted with permission from the Georgetown Current and Max Pizarro"Across the courtyard at the Fraser Gallery, photographer Catriona Fraser will be showing her "Landscapes of Scotland - Part One of the Seven Celtic Nations Project" from Nov. 19 to December 3, 1999. The English-born Fraser, who owns and operates the gallery with her husband, artist F. Lennox Campello, has traveled extensively in Scotland and delved into the history and customs of that country, the homeland of her father. In this first installment of her Celtic Nations project, Fraser presents her pictures of Pictish stones, ancient ruins, megalithic stone circles, medieval fortresses and forgotten cemeteries, "all recorded in the brooding, ethereal medium of black and white infrared film," in her words. "Infrared film seems to be able to record these ancient landscapes in a way which almost captures the historical essence of the subject," Fraser says in a release. "It is much more difficult to work with, and requires a lot more concentration and effort in the darkroom, but the final result is well-worth the extra work." She adds, "My own work is a lifelong project to document the landscapes and visual history of the Seven Celtic Nations. Being British of a Scottish father, I naturally started photographing Scotland."
The exhibit essentially gives a photographic history of ancient and medieval Scotland. One of the stones Fraser photographed, for example, commemorates the Battle of Dunnichen in the Angus Valley in 685 AD. The battle remains one of the significant turning points in early medieval history. According to Fraser, in holding off and then devastating the Anglian army, the Picts preserved Scotland as a country unto itself. Fraser's photographic career began at age 15, when the Reading Evening Post in England hired her as an assistant photographer trainee and darkroom assistant. A year later she became the youngest student ever admitted to the Plymouth College of Arts and Design's diploma photography course. In 1991 she founded Cairn Photography, her own fine arts business in Scotland, and in 1996 her and her husband opened the Fraser Gallery in Georgetown. Fraser has exhibited widely in Europe, Latin America and the United States. She will be at the gallery for her exhibit's opening reception on Friday from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. © Copyright 1999 The Georgetown Current |
