The early history of photography was carried forward by professionals and other self-educated entrepreneurs who had the time and resources to master very complex methods and processes. But in the second half of the nineteenth century the practice of photography was simplified through various advances in technology that opened up the art to a much wider range of enthusiasts. Photography moved closer to what we know today as an art form accessible to everyone.
While our collection contains photographs by various well-known masters, we also have a great many fascinating images created by non-specialists. Often we know very little about these amateurs, as is the case with Alexander Hutchison, the author of this photograph taken on St Kilda. Aside from the fact that he was a joiner and cabinet-maker in Edinburgh, we have very few details of his life. He was apparently a keen amateur photographer but most of his photographs were inadvertently destroyed by his family after his death. This print comes from an album acquired at auction in 1988 by the National Monuments Record and which contains mainly photographs of sites in and around Edinburgh and the Borders. The single photograph of St Kilda remains something of a mystery. It is not known why Hutchison was on the island or what lay behind this elaborately posed image of its inhabitants.
Often described as the most remote part of the British Isles, St Kilda is an archipelago that lies some forty miles west of the Outer Hebrides in the North Atlantic Ocean. Across several centuries the inhabitants of St Kilda lived mainly in isolation and self-sufficiency, harvesting the land and the abundant seabird population. The growth of tourism in the Victorian era brought increasing contact with the mainland with summer cruise steamers arriving regularly from the 1870s onwards. For those visitors who braved the often perilous landing on St Kilda, the seemingly primitive way of life of a tiny community at the very margins of their country and society would have aroused great curiosity.
This photograph was probably taken around 1890, by which time the St Kildans would have been used to the annual summer intrusions and were presumably also accustomed to posing for photographs. Hutchison’s photograph gathers a sizeable proportion of the 100 or so inhabitants, with two outsiders – one male, one female – also shown in the group. The islanders are shown close to their village against the backdrop of a hillside dotted with cleits, the small stone constructions roofed with turf that were used for storing food and peat. The gaunt, pinched faces of the women attest to the harsh conditions of life on the island. Hutchison’s photograph is an intriguing record of an encounter between two different worlds and a record of a way of life that was increasingly under threat. By the end of the century, the combined impact of emigration, disease and hardship had led to a dwindling population, and in 1930 the remaining thirty-six inhabitants were evacuated from St Kilda at their own request.
This text was originally published in 100 Masterpieces: National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2015.