Friday August 29th 2025
Calum Colvin alongside his photographs on display during PhotoDalkeith
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Liam Eunson
Dalkeith Palace’s second PhotoDalkeith exhibition returns tomorrow being a celebration of Scottish photography, featuring the work of 17 of Scotland’s most distinguished contemporary photographers.
With atleast 170 pieces of work lining the palace’s walls, this year’s theme is ‘nature and nurture’, explored through the unique perspective of current day Scottish photographers with many of them exhibiting work never seen before.
Running every weekend from tomorrow until the 5th of October, it allows for both a wonder of the iconic Palace and a look at Scotland’s most impressive photography.
Dalkeith Palace Development lead, Charlotte Rostek, explained, “PhotoDalkeith started last year with an examination of photographic processes, but this year we have assembled 17 of the best Scottish contemporary photographer and the idea really is that this is becoming an annual platform for the celebration of photography in Scotland.”
“The flow of the exhibition is very deliberate, it is put together with a community element. We’ve invited the Midlothian Camera Club to use the walls in the entrance and cafe area which has turned out really well.”
With the entrance being through the cafe, which is a change from usual exhibitions at the Palace, the team behind the exhibition have invited the Midlothian Camera Club to preview 13 pieces of work in the cafe area, showcasing photography from around Midlothian. This addition adds a local perspective allowing visitors to see photography from around the local area, alongside allowing the camera club to preview their work alongside some of Scotland’s most decorated photographers.
Charlotte explained, “[The exhibition] flows beautifully, So coming out from the Midlothian Camera Club, we then have focus on Dalkeith Country Park through a historic perspective from the Buccleuch family”.
“Walter Dalkeith has gone out with his own camera, as he is a keen photographer, and has captured an area of the park that he finds interesting today. It’s lovely, an exploration of nature and the site where we are.”
Using both Midlothian Camera Clubs work and then local pictures of the country park makes for a creative introduction to the exhibition, giving people an insight into the area and a taste for the quality of work on display before entering. Using both the Beccleuch’s family photo’s9the historic family who is ownership of the palace) and more recent photography by Walter Dalkeith, the curation team put them side to side, using the black and white photography to compare the Beccleuch photo’s from the 1800 of areas of the country park to more recent photos of the park from Walter, creating a unique comparison.
Alongside this, PhotoDalkeith will showcase works from the likes of Iain Stewart, Andy Wiener, David Williams, Alicia Bruce, and many more. Previewing both classic skilled photography alongside some unusual pieces of work such as clowns photographed in New York and family members projected onto trees.
Visiting the exhibition when it was still in its construction phase, the most unsual works that stood out to me were by Ron O’Donnel and Calum Colvin.
Recepient of a Leverhulme Trust Research grant, Ron O’Donnel, showcases his uniqu but extremely creative depictions of historic paintings. Editing his own face onto figures painted in historic artwork, Ron uses photography to add a creative twist and humour to popular paintings, often depicting scenes with messages such as, the blind leading the blind.
Winner of one the first Scottish Arts Council Creative Scotland Awards, Calum Colvin, previews ‘constructed photography’ in photographs that, taken from a certain angle, show paintings on top of a unique background by painting sections of an image onto objects in a room. With his photographs being complicated and hard to explain, it is hard to wrap your head around how he does it at first glance despite it being an extremely impressive art form.
To help visitors understand the work being displayed, Dalkeith Palace has implemented films into the exhibition for the first time, giving people an insight into both the photographer and how they create their work.
With the exhibition curated to follow a clockwise route, the layout allows the photographs to be viewed in an effective route, with many of the popular photographers having a room to themselves.
“The floors of the exhibition are clockwise around the ground floor and then for the first time, we are using the upstairs of the palace too, the big great gallery and the landing upstairs. It works really well together.”
With the layout of the exhibition being planned with extreme detail, PhotoDalkieth’s currator, Julie Lawson explained, “Photography has been a practice as an art in Scotland since its invention in the nineteenth century. Scottish photographers have excelled, been internationally acclaimed and exerted significant influence.”
That this tradition continues to present day is demonstrated and celebrated in this exhibition of work by seventeen of Scotland’s most distinguished practitioners.”
“People and places are at the heart of this exhibition: photographs of people and the environments in which they have been nurtured, and which now need to be protected and cared for in return.”
Much of the work on display encaptures this sense of nature and nurture with many of the photographs depicting familys and places of significance. This is truley showcased through work on show by David Williams, who captures heartwarming family orientated scenes.
Dalkeith Palace is the perfect venue for this form of exhibition with the grand walls offering a great backdrop for the contemporary art to be displayed.
Charlotte explained, “Unlike a gallery, the palace offers so many interesting and differently shaped sized rooms and I always say that the space itself dictates where the work will go.”
Julie added, “There is a spirit at Dalkeith Palace whose continuation the present Earl of Dalkeith aims to preserve both through the maintenance of its natural environment – a special place to be fully and freely enjoyed – and the annual celebration of the art of photography that is PhotoDalkeith.”
With six of the photographers having their own dedicated room, the open space allows for the photography to pop out of the walls, creating a beautiful twist on a traditional gallery. One photographer, Calum Colvin, who created the ‘deconstructed artwork, has his room in front foyard of the Palace that has two TVs showing the process of making the photograph which adds great context to the work on display.
Running off a successful exhibition in June successful exhibition in June that featured items from the Scottish Furniture Makers Association, the palace plans to continue PhotoDalkeith in the coming years with the next three years already beginning to be organised.
“We are looking ahead to the next three years already”, Charlotte explained, “Next year, the Royal Scottish Academy celebvrates their 200th anniversaryand that’s going to be a nationwide celebration so we thought we would make PhotoDalkeith a platform to show RSA photographers and filmmakers. We are also looking to pull the date forward to line up with bthe Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August but that is something under discussion at the moment.”
“Then the year after that we are looking at a big show with a focus on Poland which is really interesting and relevant to Midlothian.”
Midlothian has tradiitonally had a large Polish community in particular through the military. The first division of the Polish army was quartered in Dalkeith Palace’s attic where they left traces of graffiti. The palace is looking to highlight this midlothian polish connection in the 2027 PhotoDalkeith, allowing locals and visitors to gain a deeper insight into that unique history.
Last year, the idea of PhotoDalkeith was born out of the Buccleuch family albums. The Beccleuch family wanted to digitise their photo albums and they invited two popular photographers, to show them how it is best done and what kind of equipment is needed. One of the artists named Zelda Cheatle (who did a show at the palace last year) was at the same time curating a show for the Royal Photographic Society surrounding neopictorialism (contemporary artists who use traditional techniques) thought to herself of why the Buccleuch family photo’s weren’t on display due to them being similar to the photography she was curating for the exhibition.
“So we feel we’ve really hit on something that has a future and that can, and has, take all sorts of shapes and forms over the years to come.”
With Edinburgh business Mimi’s Bakehouse running the cafe, Midlothian Camera Clubs local photography and the over 200 photographs from talented photographs, Charlotte and the rest of the palace are hoping the second PhotoDalkeith is a success.
The exhibition is free but organisers recommend pre-booking.
For more information on the exhibition and the photographers click here.
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