I’ve been a commercial photographer in Glasgow for over 20 years. In that time I’ve seen quite a lot of changes not only in the photographic industry but in Glasgow itself.
This image shows the state of the Clyde walkway near Dalmarnock before it was redeveloped for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.
About 9 years ago I was commissioned to photograph areas of the city which were earmarked for redevelopment. I was then asked to photograph the same locations after the redevelopment was complete and as you can see from some of these photographs the change is quite dramatic. Most of it took place in the east end of Glasgow with sites such as the athletes village for the Commonwealth Games being turned into social housing.
This is how the Clyde walkway in Dalmarnock looks after redevelopment.
These changes have also been reflected in the photographic industry itself. When I started out, commercial photographers in Glasgow were all using film. To cater for this there were numerous labs all round the city providing film processing services. Within a mile of each other there were about 4 just catering for commercial, corporate and press and PR photographers. There was even a Rank movie film lab which processed movie film for the television news and drama shows.
Many of the houses in the former Commonwealth Games athlete’s village are now run by a Housing Association.
20 years on, all those labs have shut, with the exception of one which moved into the production of exhibition stands and another Loxley Colour, which was a tiny basement operation at the time but is now one of the UK’s largest providers of wedding albums and digital printing. They shut down all their E6 and C41 processing some time ago and now only print from digital files.
In addition to photographic processing labs, many commercial photography studios and adversing agencies have closed or merged. There are only a handful of companies today that existed 20 years ago. Of course change is not new. The photographic industry is one that has always been continually evolving; from glass plates to roll film, black and white to colour, manual focus to autofocus, digital SLR’s that also shoot video, it never stops.
Glaswegians love creating their own names for buildings and bridges. This one probably has an official title but if known locally as the ‘Squiggly Bridge’.
Of course with every change there also comes an opportunity. 10 years ago I noticed there was a need for a co-ordinated network of commercial photographers covering the whole of the UK, as clients always seemed to have problems finding a good photographer they could trust. I then set about researching and approaching photographers who also specialised in advertising, architecture, commercial, corporate, editorial and press and PR work in other parts of the UK. After an initial meeting in 2008 the Commercial Photographers Network was born (CPN for short). Prior to the internet this would have been very hard to set up, as it would have relied on browsing through directories like Yellow Pages which would have revealed very little about the quality of a photographer’s work.
Much of the redevelopment in Glasgow has centred on opening up the Clyde. A new walkway and cycleway now runs along the Clyde.
The existence of the internet also greatly helped clients too as it would have been difficult to promote a network like the Commercial Photographers Network without it. All clients have to do is visit the website to get a quick overview of what the CPN does, where it’s members are located and the quality of their work. Change can be very unsettling in many ways but it also brings about opportunities if you are prepared to adapt and embrace them.
If you’d like some more information about our unique UK-wide Commercial Photographers Network then contact us. Wherever you are, we have a photographer near you!
