Stephen McLaren

Stephen McLaren is a Scottish photographer, writer, and curator, based in Los Angeles. He has edited various photography books published by Thames & Hudson—including Street Photography Now (2010)—and produced his own, The Crash (2018). He is a co-founder member of Document Scotland. McLaren's work has been shown at FACT in Liverpool as part of the Look – Liverpool International Photography Festival and in Document Scotland group exhibitions at Impressions Gallery, Bradford and at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh. His work is held in the collection of the University of St Andrews.

Career

McLaren made television documentaries in Scotland and then in London, before moving to the USA and working as a photographer.^[1] In 2013 he was living in San Francisco^[1] and is now based in Los Angeles.^[2] Matt McCann wrote in The New York Times that McLaren's street photography "feels like a field guide to how normal things can be really odd, contradictory — and visually rich."

He is a co-founder member of the Document Scotland collective, founded in 2012 to make documentary photography about Scotland.^[3][4]

Street Photography Now (2010), co-edited with Sophie Howarth, is a survey book of contemporary street photography, in which McLaren's photography is also included.^[5][6][7] Photographers' Sketchbooks (2014), co-edited and co-written with Bryan Formhals,^[8] gives insight into the work and methods of 50 photographers with a chapter by each of them.^[9] Magnum Streetwise (2019), edited by McLaren, contains images he drew from the Magnum Photos archive.^[10]

McLaren's book of his own street photography, The Crash (2018), documents the City of London after the financial crisis of 2007–2008, made over five years.^[1][11][12] The work was shown at the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (FACT) as part of the Look – Liverpool International Photography Festival in 2011.^[13]

Made in the run up to the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, McLaren's series American Always, Scottish Forever depicts Americans with Scottish ancestry attending the Highland games season in California—the athletes, musicians, artists, and visitors who hold a close affinity with Scotland.^[14][15] The work was shown in a Document Scotland group exhibition at Impressions Gallery, Bradford^[15] and at Berwick Visual Arts, Berwick-upon-Tweed.^[16]

McLaren's A Sweet Forgetting was made after the Scottish National Portrait Gallery asked Document Scotland to produce an exhibition in response to the Scottish independence referendum.^[17] McLaren's series is concerned with the involvement of Scots in the sugar economy of Jamaica in the 18th and 19th centuries, built on the slave trade. In Jamaica, he made photographs about the period's genealogical legacy, about the land which had once been owned by rich Scots, and what remained of their houses. He also photographed some of the country estates, mansions and schools built throughout Scotland with wealth amassed by Scottish sugar plantation owners that enslaved Africans generated for nearly 150 years.^[18][19]

Publications

Publications of McLaren's photography

• The Crash. East London Photo Stories, Book 14. London: Hoxton Mini, 2018. ISBN 978-1-910566-37-4.^[20]

Zines of McLaren's photography

• Dookits. Southport: Café Royal, 2015. Edition of 150 copies.

Publications with contributions of McLaren's photography

• Street Photography Now. London: Thames & Hudson, 2010. Edited by McLaren and Sophie Howarth.^[21] ISBN 978-0-500-54393-1. French-language edition, translated by Berton, Gilles. Paris: Thames & Hudson, 2017. ISBN 9780500293515.
• Common Ground. Document Scotland, 2014. Includes two photo essays from each Document Scotland member, including McLaren, plus work by members of Welsh photography collective A Fine Beginning. With essays by Malcolm Dickson and Anne McNeill. Published to accompany an exhibition at Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow.^[22]

Publications edited by McLaren

• Street Photography Now. London: Thames & Hudson, 2010. Edited by McLaren and Sophie Howarth.^[23] ISBN 978-0-500-54393-1. French-language edition, translated by Berton, Gilles. Paris: Thames & Hudson, 2017. ISBN 9780500293515.
• Photographers' Sketchbooks. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2014. Co-edited and co-written by McLaren and Bryan Formhals. ISBN 978-0500544341.^[24][25]
• Family Photography Now. London: Thames & Hudson, 2016. Edited by McLaren and Howarth. ISBN 978-0500544532.
• Magnum Streetwise: the ultimate collection of street photography from Magnum Photos. London; New York: Thames & Hudson, 2019. ISBN 978-0500545072. Photographs by various Magnum Photos photographers.^[10]
• Reclaim the Street: Street Photography's Moment. London: Thames & Hudson, 2023. With Matt Stuart. ISBN 9780500545379.

Exhibitions

Group exhibitions or exhibitions during festivals with photography by McLaren

• London Games, Format International Photography Festival, Derby, UK, 2011^[26]
• Moral Hazard, Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (FACT), Liverpool, UK, part of Look – Liverpool International Photography Festival, 2011^[13]
• Seeing Ourselves, Fotospace Gallery, Glenrothes, Fife, Scotland, 2013. Work by the founding members of Document Scotland and others.^[4][27][28]
• Beyond the Border: New Contemporary Photography from Scotland, Impressions Gallery, Bradford, UK;^[15][29] Granary Gallery, Berwick Visual Arts, Berwick-upon-Tweed, UK, 2017.^[16][30] With fellow members of Document Scotland. Included McLaren's American Always, Scottish Forever. Curated by Anne McNeill.^[31]
• Common Ground: New Documentary Photography from Scotland & Wales, StreetLevel Photoworks, Glasgow, UK, 2014. With fellow members of Document Scotland. Included McLaren's Scotia Nova.^[32]
• Document Scotland: The Ties that Bind, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland, 2015/2016.^[33][34] Included A Sweet Forgetting by McLaren.^[18]
• A Contested Land, Martin Parr Foundation, Bristol, UK. With fellow members of Document Scotland. Included McLaren's Edinburgh Unchained.^[35]

Exhibitions curated by McLaren

• Common Ground: New American Street Photography, New Orleans Photo Alliance Gallery, New Orleans, 2013;^[36] drkrm, Los Angeles, 2013.^[37][38] With work by Blake Andrews, Richard Bram, Formhals, Chuck Patch and Jack Simon.
• Peripheral Vision, The Battery, San Francisco, 2015/2016. Curated by McLaren in collaboration with Thomas Moller and Matt Bernstein.^[39]

Collections

McLaren's work is held in the following permanent collections:

• University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife, Scotland: 116 works (as of September 2020)^[40] including Jamaica: A Sweet Forgetting,^[41] American Always Scottish Forever^[42] and Scotia Nova^[43]

See also

• Sophie Gerrard

References

1. McCann, Matt (25 March 2013). "Wading Into Weirdness on the Street". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
2. "Stephen McLaren". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
3. Sutton-Hibbert, Jeremy. "The photography collective exploring Scotland's past and present". The Independent. Archived from the original on 25 May 2022. Retrieved 11 August 2018.
4. "Document Scotland: A collective capturing a nation". The Scotsman. Retrieved 11 August 2018.
5. Bakewell, Sarah (23 December 2010). "The ecstasy of street photography". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
6. "Street photography now". BBC. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
7. "Photography books of the year – reviews". The Guardian. 12 December 2010. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
8. Teicher, Jordan G. (1 February 2015). "A Glimpse Into the Sketchbooks of Professional Photographers". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
9. "Books of the year 2014: The best photography books". The Independent. 20 December 2014. Archived from the original on 25 May 2022. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
10. "Streetwise: Capturing iconic moments of daily life". BBC News. 21 October 2019. Retrieved 19 August 2020 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
11. McLaughlin, Aimée (20 September 2018). "The Crash: A chilling look back at the global financial crisis". Creative Review. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
12. Dhaliwal, Ranjit (30 October 2013). "Moral Hazard: snapping the City after the crash – audio slideshow". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
13. "Look11 International Photography Festival" (PDF). www.lookphotofestival.com. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
14. "American always, Scottish forever". BBC News. 29 June 2014. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
15. "Aesthetica Magazine – Document Scotland, Beyond the Border: New Contemporary Photography from Scotland, Impressions Gallery, Bradford". Aesthetica Magazine. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
16. "Beyond the Borders examines the Scottish identity in series of works". www.berwick-advertiser.co.uk. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
17. "In pictures: The Ties That Bind". BBC News. 20 October 2015. Retrieved 3 September 2020 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
18. Shakur, Fayemi. "A Sweet Forgetting: Slavery, Sugar and Scotland". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 August 2018.
19. McLaren, Stephen. "Jamaica – a sweet forgetting: Scotland's role in the slave trade". HeraldScotland. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
20. "Dystopian photos of London's bankers in meltdown". Huck Magazine. 27 September 2018. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
21. Juniper, Adam (31 October 2019). "The best books on street photography in 2020". Digital Camera World. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
22. "Common Ground – our new publication". Document Scotland. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
23. O'Hagan, Sean (12 December 2010). "The Best Photography Books of the Year". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
24. "The best coffee table books out now". The Telegraph. 22 July 2015. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
25. "Mixed Media". The RPS Journal. 154: 753. December 2014. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
26. "Format's street photography focus". BBC News. 10 March 2011. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
27. "Seeing Ourselves – New Documentary Photography from Scotland". The List. Retrieved 11 August 2018.
28. "Exhibition: "Seeing Ourselves"". Scottish Centre for Crime & Justice Research. Retrieved 11 August 2018.
29. "Documenting Scotland". British Journal of Photography. 1 September 2014. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
30. "Beyond the Border: New Contemporary Photography from Scotland". The Maltings Theatre & Cinema. Retrieved 11 August 2018.
31. "Beautiful Photos of What May Be the World's Next National Border". The New Republic. Retrieved 12 August 2018.
32. "Common Ground: New Documentary Photography from Scotland & Wales". Street Level Photoworks. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
33. "Art review: Mixed messages on Scottish independence". The Scotsman. Retrieved 12 August 2018.
34. "Document Scotland: The Ties That Bind". The List. 3 September 2015. Retrieved 12 August 2018.
35. "Martin Parr Foundation". Martin Parr Foundation. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
36. "Common Ground – New Orleans Photo Alliance Takes It to the Street with five photographers". Artblog. 21 February 2013. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
37. "Common Ground: New American Street Photography at drkrm". lenscratch.com. 8 July 2013. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
38. "Common Ground: New American Street Photography". www.drkrm.com. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
39. "The Battery". www.thebatterysf.com. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
40. "Photographic collection". collections.st-andrews.ac.uk. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
41. "Jamaica: A Sweet Forgetting". University of St Andrews. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
42. "merican Always Scottish Forever". collections.st-andrews.ac.uk. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
43. "Scotia Nova". collections.st-andrews.ac.uk. Retrieved 3 September 2020.

External links

• Official website
• "Searing street photographs taken during the financial crisis cast a critical eye over the City of London" – photographs from The Crash at Creative Boom