Scottish Parliament

I was selected for this commission as I have exhibited often in Scotland, and have work in the National Collection. My proposal was to photograph different regions - the highlands, including specific mountains; the coast; and lowland areas near Edinburgh. I chose areas I knew very well, and some I didn't, but most had a particular historical significance. There were two other photographers chosen, and the work hangs permanently, with artwork given as gifts, or from National Collections.

I photographed some areas that are well known, but did them in in my usual style of abstraction and metaphor, seeking out details, and broader visions, and challenging an overtly romantic perception of the landscape. The prints show a graphic and personal view of Scotland, are archivally processed, and fall into a fine print tradition of black and white photography. The work has a historical context, as I chose places of relevance, such as sand dunes at Lossiemouth, near to where Ramsey Mac Donald, the first Labour leader was born; the brooding pass of Glencoe where the massacre took place; 'Schiehallion' the first mountain in the world to be mapped by contour lines, due to its pyramid shape; the waterfall 'Black Bob' at Pitlochry, formed by the Edradour burn which feed the smallest whisky distillery in Britain.

Peter Cattrell

Research Interests
Landscape photography
Portrait photography
Analogue archival and fine printing to
museum and gallery standard
Digital media

Current Research

With an interest in literature and history, my creative work in photography is interpretations of the landscape of Europe, informed by historical research, and connected to themes of identity, association, and personal loss. I have produced a successful touring exhibition on the landscape of the Great War, which I visited again in 2006, and produced some more work. I envisage a solo publication to coincide with the 100th anniversary in 2016. The approach is to show the land as a memorial in itself, with the land still showing scars of the conflict, but also a regeneration of the land to farming. The cutting of a maze crop, or lines of winter stubble where men were cut down by rifle fire, or mine craters deeply moulding the land are metaphors with a personal sense of place. This show includes personal memorabilia and letters to juxtapose the contemporary photographs.

I have been researching a project on the French Huguenots who came to England to avoid persecution in 1700, and intend to exhibit this work in 2009. This relates to my ancestors the Roubels, from Ruffec in the Charente Maritime region of France, who came to Westminster in London. The project relates to my interest in the ideas of personal identity, and also of a displaced people - themes that I have seen recurring whilst degree teaching at the UoAL, notably with students of Jewish, or African descent. An Australian genealogist has published a book on the Roubel family, and I am using this as a basis for the work, as well as linking up with archives and museums in London.

Working in black and white and recently in colour, I am well known for fine printing my own, and other photographers work. I printed an exhibition at the darkrooms of the Imperial War Museum from glass plate negatives taken in Scotland in 1914 - 18, of women working doing traditionally 'men's jobs' in factories and industry. This was exhibited in Edinburgh at the National Portrait gallery.

I am also continuing to print on silver paper to present galleries with recent landscape work. Currently I am experimenting with digital forms of capture and printing, as many companies have stopped producing silver based paper. I am doing high resolution scanning of my career archive of creative work on film, and I have been linking up with Shelley Rose the digital printing technician at CSM.

• http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/vli/ho...