Porch Swing Studios

07/08/2022

Throwback to some formative photography for me. 2 of 2:

A girl stands in front of shelves full of dolls in a store, but none of them look like her. She's white, and the dolls are black.

07/08/2022

Throwback to some formative photography for me. 1 of 2:

In 1994, Peter Menzel photographed families around the world posing with everything they owned. A decade and a half later, a similar project takes us on a trip around China.

05/13/2022

"I remember I saw him walking down the corridor on his first day at art school and I thought ‘Oh my God, I need to take that person’s picture.’ We have been friends and collaborators ever since."

This portrait of Samuel Froggatt was taken by Craig Waddell as part of his photography series 'Masc'. The series explores q***r identity, particularly masculinity, through formal portraiture. The subjects are all people who Craig has met through the q***r scene in Scotland, mostly in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Of the work, Craig said: "This portrait was taken in a flat in Edinburgh. Sam is a visual artist but he also has a collection of vintage clothing, so he had this, I think it’s a 1930s vintage theatre dress. He told me about it, and I thought ‘we need to do something’. Again, there was this play on gender this huge, long dress. He is incredibly natural in his posing; I never have to direct him at all. So that was a really special one for me and in terms of the whole visuality of the piece, the quality of the light the colouring, it was a real moment for me in the series."

Works from the series are on display at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery as part of our free exhibition 'Counted: Scotland's Census 2022'. Exhibition curator, Louise Pearson, spoke to Craig about 'Masc'. Learn the stories behind the portraits: https://bit.ly/3Fw8N6d

11/11/2021

10/29/2021

Canongate Tolbooth on Royal Mile, Old Town, Edinburgh
19 June 2021

08/12/2021

As a photographer, I've been struggling with this all my life, but especially since moving to Scotland. Deciding when I'm on vacation with my family and our experience together trumps my need to bring all of my gear and get into 'photographer' mode is hard. My gear is heavy! Editing pics takes time! Getting a shot I feel like I can actually put a 'professional' stamp on takes time!

Aside from one half hour when I went out by myself after the kids were asleep, I haven't really had a true photo outing since we moved to Edinburgh in November. And that half hour was in Inverness in an attempt to capture the sunset, and instead the clouds moved in. *sigh*

Luckily we do have pretty amazing cameras on our phones nowadays, so I'm not missing out on documenting it all, it's just less certain I'm capturing anything worthy of framing and hanging on other people's walls. But, hey, we're all doing the best we can.

The sun is setting at the end of a gorgeous day at the beach — the light is just right, illuminating your kids' faces as they play in the waves. You reach for your phone because you want to remember this perfect moment.

07/12/2021

"If there’s one problem with this show, it’s that it mostly gives us women who succeeded in achieving the highest levels of excellence, barely hinting at the much greater number of women who were prevented from reaching their creative goals by the rampant sexism of their era: talented women whose places in a photo school were given to men instead, or who were streamed into the lowest or most “feminine” tiers of the profession — retouching, or cheap kiddie portraits — or who were never promoted above studio assistant. It’s a problem that bedevils all attempts at recovering the lost art of the disadvantaged: By telling the same stories of success that you do with white males, you risk making it look as though others were given the same chance to rise."

Female authorship gives meaning to the images in “The New Woman Behind the Camera” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, an inspired and inspiring exhibition.

07/01/2021

Photography as a means to explore our world and express ourselves is beautiful.

"I learned that shame is born from our losses and from the fear of what else we may lose. But pride is found in recognizing what we gain from self-acceptance."

My therapist once asked me, "What does pride look like for you?" I was 34 years old and I didn't have an answer.

02/10/2021

Well this was an adventurous first outing in Scotland with my camera. Snow sticking to my lens and glasses, mask fogging up my glasses, fingers so numb I almost couldn't click the shutter... Half the time I couldn't be certain I was getting the image I wanted, but I made it, and there will be more to come.