Now, the “significant body” of his photographs is due to go on sale, organised by his son, Frank McKenzie, who also plans to open a new gallery dedicated to his father’s legacy later this year.
School crossing ladies – Mrs Innes and Mrs Wood (Image: Joseph McKenzie)
The archive will be offered to potential buyers during the Art and Design Sale on May 21 at Cheffins Fine Art Auctioneers in Cambridge.
Dubbed the “father of modern Scottish photography” six decades ago, Joseph was born in London, learning his craft in the RAF before travelling across the country to work, and witnessed some of the worst of the country’s poverty.
A milkman in Dunfermline in the 1960s (Image: Joseph McKenzie)
He later went on to become a lecturer of photography at the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee.
Girl at St Margaret’s Day Pilgrimage at East End Park, June 1968. (Image: Joseph McKenzie)
He snapped daily life for working people across Dundee, the Gorbels, and between 1967-68, his project, ‘Dunfermline and its people’ was shown in the city, during that time.
It featured snippets into normal life, including a milkman on his rounds, a young girl in East End Park, school lollipop ladies and a children’s ballet class.
Dunfermline Bus Station 1968 (Image: Joseph McKenzie)
In 2022, when Dunfermline was granted city status, Joseph McKenzie’s work was featured in an exhibition in the Carnegie Library and Galleries. Around 47 black and white or sepia shots went on show.
A ballet class in session in Dunfermline in the 1960s (Image: Joseph McKenzie)
Alice Pearson, the OnFife curator who worked on the McKenzie exhibition at Dunfermline Carnegie Library & Galleries in 2022, when Dunfermline was granted city status, said: “Joseph McKenzie was immediately attracted to Dunfermline – its history, its location, its hustle and bustle, as well as the friendliness of its people.
“He gave us a remarkable portrait of a place in the midst of momentous change and provides glimpses of a world that has all but vanished.”