Alasdair Watson is a photographer and artist, working with families, community groups, cultural organisations, and other creators. He uses his photography to connect people, tell their stories, and help create joyful memories. His artistic projects are passionately rooted in the landscapes and languages of Glasgow and Scotland. Through the ritual of travel, connection, and creation, Alasdair uses analogue and digital processes to tell stories of how we belong to each other and our surroundings, while exploring feelings around the environment, nostalgia, loneliness, imperfection, and impermanence.

See Alasdair’s work as part of our annual autumn open call exhibition, Future/Past, featuring a sublime collection of works by twenty six artists inspired by ancestral echoes and future visions; pieces that dismantle tradition, reimagine narratives, and linger in the margins of the radical, the oneiric, and the everyday.

Hi Alasdair! Tell us how your artistic journey started.
I’ve been creative all my life, but rarely shared it with others. I didn’t pursue artistic subjects at school, university, or work, and it was only well into my twenties when I hit a dead end in my career that I decided to listen to the creative instincts in my mind, and actually put them to use. As a result, I am entirely self-taught, and photography has been my profession for fifteen years. For most of this time, I have been using my photography to support community groups and cultural organisations. It was only with Lockdown in 2020 that I gave myself permission (and time) to concentrate on my own projects, and my creative practice has since emerged to encompass photography, writing, and any other creative medium I can use to express myself.

How did you arrive at the theme of your work?
In my day to day photography I am surrounded by community and predominantly photograph people. This idea of community and connection remains central to my own artistic work, but many of my recent projects have been looking at humanity indirectly, finding remnants of community and connection left behind in nature. So for work like this, there are seldom people in my photos. I am trying to picture Scotland long after the people are gone, in a kind of speculative archaeology, via photography.

How has your practice changed over time?
My photography is generally very people centred – I look to find someone interesting to engage with, or follow faces until I can capture a smile, laugh, or embrace. However in the last couple of years I have found myself searching for what we leave behind, the remnants of past communities, and a glimpse into our own future. I think this is a result of my concern over humanity’s destruction of the environment, and uncertainty surrounding our place on the planet. It’s still about people though, the connections we make, and the ways we share them with each other. There’s still hope within my work, and I’m sure I’ll return to including faces in my analogue photos again soon.

What emotions or reactions do you hope viewers experience when they see your artwork?
I hope that I can inspire hope. I’d also like to think that by offering unusual perspectives on the familiar or nostalgic, I can induce a sense of shared history and connection. I also like to walk the line between surreal and humorous, creating stories which are very weird, but in a funny or comforting way.

What do you do to keep motivated and interested in your work?
I try new things as often as possible. I like attending writing workshops to kickstart the flow of ideas, and I’ll go to painting or drawing classes. Every time you create something, no matter the medium, you’re making connections in your mind, and you never know when you’ll return to those connections in a future project.

Will your next project be a continuation of your current style or are you experimenting with something different? Can you share a glimpse of your next project?
These two photographs are from a larger project I have been working on for a few years, which currently has the working title Scotland’s Future Past. I have travelled all over Scotland finding the remains of communities which came before us. Once completed, this project will take the form of a large photobook and exhibition.

Find out more about Alasdair’s work on his Instagram or website. Future/Past runs at Six Foot Gallery until Tuesday 14th October.