1958

PGP 193.6

In the two decades following the Second World War, the success of the Welfare State meant that children became a focus of public interest in a way that they never had before. Mayne's photographs reflect these concerns in a very sincere way. His contemporaries liked these uncomplicated pictures, which, according to Colin MacInnes writing in 1962, offered 'a portrait of urban sub-life of which, without him, I would have been unaware'.

• Material: Silver gelatine print
• Size: 28.20 x 38.20 cm
• National Galleries of Scotland
• © Roger Mayne

1890

PGP 45.34

This photograph was taken on Ben Vorlich, a mountain to the north of Loch Lomond. Its sombre, introspective mood is typical for this period of Annan’s work and the result of his skilled use of the photogravure technique. Over the years, the subject matter of this image has been interpreted in different ways. Soon after its first publication in 1895, it was thought to refer to the Old Testament, in which Moses receives the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. In 1901, another critic read into it: "Dantesque dreams, ideas of massive, awful grandeur, unknown threatening dangers". By 1986 the image was described as a Romantic landscape in the tradition of the painter Caspar David Friedrich.

• Material: Photogravure on paper
• Size: 15.00 x 21.00 cm
• National Galleries of Scotland
• © T & R Annan & Sons Ltd, (The Annan Gallery).

1868 - 1871

PGP 185.10

After the city passed an act through parliament to demolish the slums of central Glasgow in 1866, Thomas Annan was asked to record the buildings that were coming down. He worked in conditions as bad for photography as they were for humans and took only about thirty successful photographs in the three years he spent on the commission.

• Material: Albumen print
• Size: 28.40 x 22.50 cm
• National Galleries of Scotland

1907

PGP 232.1

Stieglitz was sailing to Europe in 1907 and found the company of other first class passengers unbearable. One day as he was trying to avoid them, he walked to the end of his deck and looked down into the part of the ship which accommodated the poor passengers. He perceived the ordinary men and women as flashes of colour dotted in among the geometric shapes of 'iron machinery'. Moved and fascinated by this sight, he raced to his cabin and returned with his camera to take a picture that to him constituted a step in his 'own evolution'.

• Material: Photogravure
• Size: 19.50 x 15.70 cm
• National Galleries of Scotland
• © Estate of Alfred Stieglitz

1920 (original negative around 1845)

PGP HA 390

This is one of four calotypes of young girls with David Octavius Hill’s dog, a terrier pup called Brownie. The girls depicted are the Farnie sisters; the eldest one, Annie, protectively holding the younger, Harriet, who is pretending to be asleep. Sleeping children were a recurring theme in nineteenth-century art, as it played on the Victorian fascination with childhood innocence and death. The image is clear and well-defined, which means that the girls must have sat very still for anything from several seconds up to a minute. Although the calotype was taken in the 1840s, this particular print was produced in the photography studio of Jessie Bertram around 1920. In total, 49 ‘new’ prints were made from the original negatives and were subsequently published as an album.

• Material: Carbon print
• Size: 15.40 x 20.20 cm
• National Galleries of Scotland

1989

PGP 137.7

'Love Scenes' is a series of thirteen images telling the story of a young woman who invents herself as a Barbie Doll character and begins to wear a mask with the doll's face. After marrying a nice guy, identifiable with Ken Doll, she, probably out of boredom, falls for the physically powerful He-Man. She divorces Ken to marry He-Man whose brutal force destroys her psychologically and physically. This image is the seventh in the series and shows Barbie turning her back on her life with Ken and naively leaning towards the TV projection of He-Man.

• Material: Colour photograph
• Size: 48.00 x 42.00 cm
• National Galleries of Scotland
• © Andy Wiener