Bellevue photographer Alicia Bruce (right) is having a busy Festival, with pictures in exhibitions at Out of the Blue and the College of Art’s Tent Gallery, as well as sharing her skills with children in the Portrait Gallery and young people in Wester Hailes.
At the heart of all these projects is the collaborative approach to photography that has brought Bruce to international attention, particularly over the last couple of years as she’s worked with the residents of the Menie estate on Scotland's north-east coast as Donald Trump’s golf course has threatened their homes.
The photographer grew up around Menie, which may have encouraged the locals to welcome her – even during the media overexposure of their previously remote coastal lives. However, I think they would have taken to her wherever she was from: creating pictures is her focus, and her collaborators become willing partners in this craft.
[img_assist|nid=3245|title='Menie: The Black Path', © Alicia Bruce|desc=|link=node|align=right|width=640|height=639]
Bruce created a series of portraits with the Menie residents which share the familiar aesthetic of favourite pictures – mostly from the permanent collection of the local Aberdeen Art Gallery. The source paintings are selected by the residents. Mike and Sheila Forbes, however, chose a painting from Trump’s homeland: 'American Gothic'. They are the timeless farmers, not about to be swept away by anyone’s golf course. Powerful portraits come through these strong partnerships and Bruce’s sheer engagement with picture-making – the classic compositions and the materiality of taking pictures with film. The pictures bring home a reality threatened by the golf course, without patronising or sensationalising. They were shown in Aberdeen and Findhorn in 2011, the Forbes’s portrait appeared in London, and two portraits are now held in the National Galleries of Scotland permanent collection.
In early 2011, the people of Menie heard that they would keep their homes, but they still live with the constant intrusion of the golf course – media, security, tourists and golfers. Bruce’s engagement with the area also continues, and her portraiture extends to the landscape, especially the dunes. The Menie portraits and dune-post portraits are reproduced in a BBC News in Pictures special and there’s more information on Alicia’s website.
[img_assist|nid=3246|title=Alicia Bruce's installation 'Self-Reliance (1841)', Out of the Blue|desc=|link=node|align=right|width=200|height=150]Now to the present: Edinburgh and the Festival. How to cope with the invasion of wealthy strangers or the choice of shows? How can we stay true to ourselves, have a great time and still get up for work in the morning? Perhaps American author Ralph Waldo Emerson can help:
Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events … Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.
Alicia Bruce is one of three artists responding to this quotation (along with Splashback’s Johnny Gailey and local cartoonist Malcy Duff) at the Self-Reliance (1841) exhibition at the Out of the Blue arts centre.
More recent work featuring the Menie landscape as it’s 'Trumped' is also appearing here, 12–30 August, Out of the Blue, 36 Dalmeny Street, Leith, Edinburgh EH6 8RG, 10am–5pm (not Suns). Free entry.
Finally, Bruce's work appears, too, in the Tent Gallery’s More than Bird exhibition until 20 Aug. Art, Space & Nature Studio, Evolution House, 78 Westport, EH3 9DF. Mon–Fri, 10am–4pm; Sat.–Sun., 12–4pm. Ella Taylor-Smith
[Image top-right: 'Alicia Bruce, Arthur's Seat', by Andrew Rafferty]