In the mid-1960s, with a shot called Beatle Girl, Joseph McKenzie made one of the most enduring images of Glasgow. His photograph showed a youngster in the slums of the Gorbals wearing a dirtied dress. Smiling and holding a cane, she stands next to a young woman who is wearing a dress patterned with the faces of the Fab Four.
An enduring image … Beatle Girl by Joseph McKenzie.
Images like McKenzie’s, and the street photography of Oscar Marzaroli, came to define Glasgow’s distinctive character – its Victorian tenements, grit and hardiness – charting industrial boom and subsequent bust, cycles of dereliction, regeneration and demolition. But what happened next? Featuring 80 photographs by artists of different generations, Still Glasgow, at the city’s Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA), captures its changes and complexities through the eyes of people who have been there since the 1940s.
The show tracks music, art, activism and football – and local traditions, such as “Gobstopper”. This was immortalised in Roderick Buchanan’s 2000 video, in which two teens try to hold their breath for as long as possible while passing through the Clyde Tunnel. Here, some of the artists included in Still Glasgow explain what the city means to them.
‘The lights blew the minute Franz Ferdinand started playing’Alan Dimmick‘Down to earth, no airs and graces’ … Franz Ferdinand, The Captain’s Rest, Glasgow by Alan Dimmick
Glasgow’s music scene has always been lo-fi, DIY, small venues. It’s not fancy. It’s down to earth, no airs and graces. This was a secret Franz Ferdinand gig for an album that wasn’t out yet, in the basement of The Captain’s Rest, a tiny pub that’s been around a long time. Loads of people were outside trying to get in, but the room was full with 30 to 40 people. Within a minute of the gig starting, the electricity fused and you couldn’t see a thing. Eventually it got going again, though it blew several more times.
‘I don’t know who they are. Their names were lost in a fire’David Eustace‘These strangers played an important part in my life’ … Man on Monocycle, Man with Stilts by David Eustace
I wanted to record a time of great change in the city – and in the street musicians and performers I passed daily in the early 1990s. As a recent graduate with few funds, I came across an old, abandoned warehouse near the River Clyde and set about plastering and painting a wall that would serve as a studio backdrop. I would approach street entertainers who not only stopped what they were doing – ie, earning a living – but actually followed me to this dilapidated studio in a quiet part of the city.
Unfortunately this was pre-computers, and the sitter’s names were noted on paper documents that were lost in a fire. Thankfully I can still remember some. The series of fibre-based silver prints in the exhibition were printed in my darkroom. These strangers, The Buskers, have played an important part in my life and, beyond simply photography and career, have brought opportunities I could never have imagined when I first sought the help of those strangers.
‘I took 330 shots of the flats just before their demolition’Iseult Timmermans‘I decided to capture my experience’ … 10 Red Road Flats by Iseult Timmermans.
I came to Glasgow in 1990. It was really weird. I felt I had come home. I’ve worked with Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow’s first photography gallery, for 35 years. In 1990, I ran a project with Kosovan refugees, and on the last day of the six-week project, one of the girls was telling me about her experiences of the war under the safelight in the darkroom. Afterwards I drove her home to the Red Road flats. I had never heard of them. They were famously the tallest residential buildings in the UK when they were built: a vision of Brutalist utopian living, spectacular architecturally but alien, terrifying and disorienting.
In those days, one block was a processing centre for asylum seekers coming to Glasgow. It was like a massive shabby hotel. I ended up running a community photography programme there, in a flat at 10 Red Road Court, for 10 years. It had a terrible reputation but I had nothing but great experiences. Coverage of the Red Road flats was always negative, so I decided to capture my experience of being there.
I did it very literally: I photographed every floor, every landing, every view out, just before the demolition. Only half a dozen families were left by then. I made 330 images. No one else has captured the flats like that, with an inside view. I first exhibited some in 2014, just before the flats finally came down. The show didn’t just give a unique view of iconic architecture that is no longer there, it also touched on Glasgow’s history of housing developments and its welcoming of asylum seekers.
‘I had to wear an alarm in case I got in trouble’Jane Evelyn Atwood‘They were out of it by 10 in the morning’ … Man Standing in Entrance to Great Eastern Hotel by Jane Evelyn Atwood
When I took photographs at the Great Eastern Hotel for an assignment in 1994, I had to wear an alarm, in case I got into trouble with the guys living there. But nothing ever happened. The Great Eastern used to be a beautiful, luxurious hotel, then it became a flophouse where people were supposed to spend a couple of nights and move on – but many spent a long time there. I met some who had been there 20 years.
It was completely run down. There had been a fire a long time before. They had swept the cinders up – but nothing more. It was a hostel for the homeless when I went, but the upstairs rooms weren’t really rooms: the partitions didn’t go up to the ceiling, so you could hear everything, and the doors had fallen off.
I’m American originally and I couldn’t understand what anyone said. Although they were nice to me, the alcoholism was terrible. They drank so much they were out of it by 10 in the morning. They had been abandoned. There was no therapy of any kind. They were just left to their own devices. I went back a long time afterwards, when renovation was beginning, and all that was left was one pillar. It made me sad, wondering where all the people ended up.
‘Being part of this scene was very cool’Joanne Tatham and Tom O’Sullivan‘Each frame is made of found plywood’ … Easels by Joanne Tatham and Tom O’Sullivan.
We lived and worked in Glasgow from the 1990s until 2011. At that time, the city was a place of real creativity – and change. We were interested in what was happening, but also the stories that emerged. This work, Easels, shows 15 artists in their studios. Each frame in the grid is made of found plywood.
In the 1990s, narratives around gentrification in Glasgow didn’t align with other places. A lot of these grassroots spaces, such as Grey Wolf Studios and Wasps Studios, were set up in the 1970s and were well established. They were seen as part of civic culture. Although they weren’t glitzy, they were funded and were part of the ecology. In 2016, we took a number of trips back to make this work and had a great time. It’s a playful portrait capturing the feeling of a scene, but also the love of that scene and the mythology of it. Being part of it all was very cool.
‘We asked people: what’s Glasgow to you?’Madelon HooykaasA Jaguar and a horse-and-cart shot by Madelon Hooykaas. Photograph: Stansfield/ Hooykaas
In 1975, Third Eye Gallery, now the CCA, acquired a Portapak, the first portable video recording device, and they invited the late Scottish artist Elsa Stansfield and I to make a work with it. We created a studio people could come to, recording their responses to questions along the lines of: “What’s Glasgow to you?” People got involved. They could walk in and feel heard. It was the first time something like that had been done in Scotland. The video has now been lost, but the photographs connected to it survive.
‘This is Charlie Prodger before she won the Turner’Matthew Arthur Williams‘I want people to feel comfortable’ … Charlie Prodger by Matthew Arthur Williams.
I’ve been in Glasgow for 12 years. It’s become home and I have no intentions of moving. I have been taking portraits of artists for GoMA for six years. I usually do the portrait at their studio or home. I want people to feel comfortable with how they’re represented.
My work at GoMA is of the artist Charlie Prodger, before she won the Turner prize in 2018. It’s encouraging when you see friends and peers doing so well. It was a freezing day but sunny and bright, and we were in her flat. Charlie and I have worked together and helped each other. Glasgow has a tight-knit community of artists who are always working together – we survive by sharing resources and making space for each other. The art community is thriving here because of that. The situation in Glasgow is different to other places: funding is difficult, there’s a lack of money in the arts, conditions are fraught, so you have to make something out of nothing.
‘My shot is a reminder of fun times with my family’Khansa AslamChildren Playing on Roundabout in Maxwell Park by Eric Watt. Photograph: Eric Watt/© Glasgow Life Museums collection
In May 2023, some of us from the Glendale Women’s Cafe went to see Coming Into View, an exhibition of Eric Watt’s photographs of Glasgow. Inspired, we started working with photographer Robin Mitchell. One of Eric’s photographs was taken in Maxwell Park in the 1970s. I was born and raised around there in the 1980s and 90s.
‘My Asian roots are an important part of who I am’ … Family on the Roundabout by Khansa Aslam.
In my photograph of Maxwell Park, I wanted to capture the place’s changes and similarities. My photo is a reminder of the fun times my family and I have spent there and, I hope, one day my grandkids will too. My Asian roots are an important part of who I am. I value how generations of people from many backgrounds have made Glasgow their home. My children grew up here and they proudly call this city home too.
‘Things perked up in the 1980s as pride in the city grew’Keith Ingham‘1970s weren’t good, there were strikes and unemployment’ … Untitled by Keith Ingham.
I moved to Glasgow 50 years ago but I’m still identified as English. It’s that sort of place. I was living in the West End and would go to the public library frequently to change my book – a nice purpose-built Victorian building. One Saturday, I walked in and it was full of amazing photographs – what became known as the social documentary genre – of the local area: Partick, near the River Clyde, a working-class area where the shipbuilding industry used to be. I got in touch with the Partick Camera Club, which had created the exhibition. I was invited to do a project about the demolition and rejuvenation of the East End. My shots were first shown at The People’s Palace and seen by thousands.
That’s when I started to get serious about photography. I’ve never made any money from it, but I have enthusiasm and people know about me. The 1970s weren’t good – the shipyards closed, there were strikes and unemployment, a lot of anger and anxiety. It perked up in the 1980s, and there began to be pride in the city and being Glaswegian. There was a huge garden festival and, in 1990, Glasgow was European City of Culture, which was a huge thing and generated an international reputation. It’s changed enormously.
Still Glasgow is at GoMA until 13 June 2027