John EikCaffery
Photographer
Mosaic Eye flag flies over the Scottish Parliament during COP26.
Freya Cookson
Rob Dingwall Awardee 2019
I recently graduated from Stills Academy. During the twelve weeks I created “Beyond the Mica”, a body of work comprised of images of the Aberdeenshire landscape I grew up in. Through the course of Stills Academy I addressed the frustration I felt towards the overly familiar images I had been taking, by combining and overlaying them to create new narratives. Being a part of Stills Academy meant that I gained much needed confidence in my work whilst also being constantly inspired by the people around me. Together with my fellow graduates we created our group show “Invert”. This was named to reflect our mutual agreement that we all took on hurdles within our work and inverted them into very personal, but essential forms of art.
Idil Galip
27, Phd Candidate Edinburgh Uni
“As a latchkey kid growing up in the 2000s, I spent most of my time taking staged self portraits and posting them on my various social media profiles. I liked the idea of “performing” without having to look anyone in the eye. So when I first came across Cindy Sherman’s work, it spoke to me and made me feel powerful in my own solitary, photo-narrative endeavours. The final print that I made at Stills Summer School ‘The Staged Photograph’ with Katy Hundertmark is a homage to Sherman’s A Play of Selves series, and the three characters I depict are, from left to right: The Criminal, The Daughter and Her Mother.”
Yi Chieh-Chui
34, Translator
“I started volunteering in Stills in April 2015. Since then, Stills has been accompanying me in the pursuit of photography. The institution provides invaluable resources, support, and opportunity to someone like me who does not have academic background in photography.
Through the eyes of ruby is a photographic journal documenting the current underground music scene in both Scotland & England. All the photographs are taken by Owen Godbert & Ste Fletcher using black & white 35mm film. “We have been using Stills for a few years for both developing and printing our photographs. Most recently we have been in the darkroom printing for an upcoming exhibition at Night and Day cafe in Manchester, which opens in September.”
Production Facilities
We are part of a network of publicly-funded production facilities across Scotland, that offer access to state-of-the-art workspaces and equipment at subsidised rates.
Once inducted you can use all of our facilities for as little as £15 a day.
How to get started
Before using our facilities for the first time, an induction is required at a one-off cost of £25. We do not have any additional membership fees.
Darkrooms
Our comprehensive darkrooms include Scotland’s only open access dry-to-dry colour print processor. Despite advances in digital technologies, our traditional wet darkrooms remain as popular as ever. Whether you want to get to grips with the basics of this magical medium, experiment with new techniques or produce professional hand-made fibre based and c-type prints, Stills’ darkrooms can meet all of your needs.
Digital Lab
Stills’ Digital Labs are situated alongside our darkrooms below the gallery. It’s a friendly and informal creative space for you to work with access to the latest Adobe Creative Suite, high-speed WiFi and printing and scanning facilities.
Equipment Hire
To complement our in-house facilities we have a range of equipment that you can hire at subsidised rates by the day or the week.