Author Archive: michaelwigg

What hill?

12 September 2014 Beside the M74, as it passes through Cambuslang to the south-west of Glasgow, there is a little hill overgrown with grass and scrub. The area was once part of Clydebridge Steel Works and is opposite the present-day… Read more >

Getting the colours right

6 September 2014 Getting to grips with all the software variables in order to make a good digital print is hard work. There are the camera settings, the monitor settings, the Photoshop (or GIMP) settings, the printer driver settings… There… Read more >

Folio Review

5 September 2014 Document Scotland and the Welsh collective A Fine Beginning are currently exhibiting at Street Level Photoworks here in Glasgow. Last friday the two groups jointly ran a Portfolio Review session and I was fortunate have my Glasgow’s Edgelands photographs… Read more >

Printing on plain paper

Sometimes I like to print on cartridge or watercolour paper. The effect has the softness and texture of a calotype or gum print. Compared to a print on photo paper, fine detail is attenuated, colours are muted and blacks are… Read more >

The singular image

2 September 2014 At the beginning of the year I always get impatient for spring. February and March are the longest months. Earlier this year I was looking to make black and white images of waste ground. I was thinking… Read more >

Wasteland

1 September 2014 There is a photographic genre of Urban Landscape that highlights dereliction and decay. This is not my genre. I see “waste” ground as regenerating rather than decaying, unvisited rather than neglected. These places are getting on just… Read more >

Beginning a project

31 August 2014 How does an idea emerge? It may be as simple as taking a walk through a vacant bit of land on a fine late-winter morning because you are early for work. From my diary: 4th March 2014 … Read more >

The art of printing must be re-learned

30 August 2014 Back in the day I used to make some pretty good black and white prints. I was at home in a darkroom. Now I am having to learn a whole lot of new skills. While reasonably good… Read more >

Exploring edgelands

I have been exploring marginal parts of Glasgow since March 2014, making photographs as I go. I started by looking at some of the the open areas of waste ground between where I work and where I live. I was… Read more >